Medical students, residents voice perceived barriers to career advancement

Key takeaways:

• The greatest barrier among medical students was a lack of opportunity for alpha omega alpha membership.
• Among resident physicians, it was a lack of a home program in a particular specialty or fellowship.

Medical students and residents perceived a lack of a home program as one of the most crucial barriers to residencies and fellowships of interest, according to a survey.

“Recent survey-based studies have investigated various factors influencing medical students’ career choices, including academic status, socioeconomic factors and mentorship,” Akshitha Thatiparthi, BS, of the department of dermatology at Loma Linda University, and colleagues wrote. “Perceived barriers to career advancement faced by resident physicians in comparison to medical students have yet to be elucidated.”

To investigate these barriers, the researchers issued a Likert scale survey to 301 medical students and 103 resident physicians. Results showed that medical students believe the largest perceived barrier to career advancement was a lack of opportunity to obtain alpha omega alpha membership (mean Likert scale score, 4.01 ± 1.97).

Other perceived barriers among medical students included the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 score (3.92 ± 1.89), lack of a home program in specialty or fellowship of interest (3.62 ± 1.85), third-year clerkship grades (3.58 ± 1.95) and obtaining multiple peer-reviewed research publications (3.58 ± 1.65).

The residents, on the other hand, reported that a lack of a home program or fellowship was the most crucial barrier (3.48 ± 1.78). This was followed by a lack of connections or networking (3.17 ± 1.5), probability of matching (3.14 ± 1.44), USMLE Step 1 score (3.08 ± 1.52) and available opportunities at their program (3.06 ± 1.58).

Overall, a lack of a home program was perceived as one of the most crucial barriers to residencies and fellowships of interest among both residents and medical students. According to the authors, this barrier may have emerged as a product of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During the pandemic, away rotations were limited, conferences were held virtually and opportunities for in-person networking were limited, further challenging individuals lacking a home program,” the authors wrote. “Identifying local residency and fellowship programs to serve as proxy home programs is one potential solution to improve access to mentors, research and networking opportunities.”