Students' confidence in residency-matching system grows

CMAJ 1999;160:472

© 1999 Canadian Medical Association

Self-reported level of preparation for making PGY1 choice

The actual 1998 match results, included in the survey report, reveal that students who decided before medical school which field of medicine they wished to pursue were more successful at obtaining their first choice of discipline than those who made the decision later.

Graduating students who applied to only a single discipline were 97% successful in being matched to it. Students who applied to a variety of programs (13 to 15) were more likely to achieve their desired geographic area of training (93%) than those who limited their application to only a few program locations (74%).

Students who chose family medicine as their first choice had a 96% chance of being matched to that discipline in 1998, and of those matched 38% indicated that they planned to complete a third year of training. Another 57% had not yet decided if they would pursue the extra year. Among those intending to take an extra year of training, emergency medicine was the overwhelming choice (71%).

Students from McMaster were most likely to be matched to their first-choice discipline (89%) followed closely by the University of Ottawa (86%). Those least likely to match to their first selection graduated from the University of Alberta and the University of Saskatchewan (both 76%).

This column was written by Lynda Buske, chief, physician resources information planning, CMA. Readers may send potential research topics to Patrick Sullivan (sullip@cma.ca; 613 731-8610 or 800 663-7336 x2126; fax 613 565-2382).

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