More Is More: Drivers of the Increase in Emergency Medicine Residency Applications.
Abstract
<h4>Introduction</h4>The average number of applications per allopathic applicant to
emergency medicine (EM) residency programs in the United States (US) has increased
significantly since 2014. This increase in applications has caused a significant burden
on both programs and applicants. Our goal in this study was to investigate the drivers
of this application increase so as to inform strategies to mitigate the surge.<h4>Methods</h4>An
expert panel designed an anonymous, web-based survey, which was distributed to US
allopathic senior applicants in the 2017-2018 EM match cycle via the Council of Residency
Directors in Emergency Medicine and the Emergency Medicine Residents Association listservs
for completion between the rank list certification deadline and release of match results.
The survey collected descriptive statistics and factors affecting application decisions.<h4>Results</h4>A
total of 532 of 1748 (30.4%) US allopathic seniors responded to the survey. Of these
respondents, 47.3% felt they had applied to too many programs, 11.8% felt they had
applied to too few, and 57.7% felt that their perception of their own competitiveness
increased their number of applications. Application behavior of peers going into EM
was identified as the largest external factor driving an increase in applications
(61.1%), followed by US Medical Licensing Exam scores (46.9%) - the latter was most
pronounced in applicants who self-perceived as "less competitive." The most significant
limiter of application numbers was the cost of using the Electronic Residency Application
Service (34.3%).<h4>Conclusion</h4>A substantial group of EM applicants identified
that they were over-applying to residencies. The largest driver of this process was
individual applicant response to the behavior of their peers who were also going into
EM. Understanding these motivations may help inform solutions to overapplication.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22296Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.5811/westjem.2020.10.48210Publication Info
Huang, Robert D; Lutfy-Clayton, Lucienne; Franzen, Douglas; Pelletier-Bui, Alexis;
Gordon, David C; Jarou, Zachary; ... Hopson, Laura R (2020). More Is More: Drivers of the Increase in Emergency Medicine Residency Applications.
The western journal of emergency medicine, 22(1). pp. 77-85. 10.5811/westjem.2020.10.48210. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22296.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
More Info
Show full item recordScholars@Duke
David Charles Gordon
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Gordon is Associate Professor and Associate Program Director for the Department
of Emergency Medicine. He also serves as an Associate Dean for Student Affairs for
the Duke University School of Medicine. After receiving his MD from Harvard Medical
School, he completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University
of Cincinnati. In 2005, he joined the Emergency Medicine faculty at Duke University
and remains dedicated to the education and training of medical students and resid

Articles written by Duke faculty are made available through the campus open access policy. For more information see: Duke Open Access Policy
Rights for Collection: Scholarly Articles
Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info