Residents getting unprecedented attention from employers

Half of final-year residents surveyed this April had received 100 or more job solicitations during their training, according to physician-recruiting firm Merritt Hawkins.

Among the 935 survey responses the company received, 70% of physicians in their final year of residency had gotten more than 50 job offers: 20% received 51-100, and 50% received more than 100. The numbers were even higher for those in primary care: 76% had received at least 51 job solicitations, and 55% reported more than 100 offers, Merritt Hawkins said in its 2017 Survey of Final-Year Medical Residents.

The 50% of all residents who received 100 or more job solicitations is the highest at that level since the survey began in 1991 (it is generally conducted every 2 or 3 years), with much lower figures seen as recently as 2008 – only 6% got that many offers – and 2006, when the number was 16%.

That primary care physicians are even more in demand shows their importance “as leaders of interdisciplinary clinical teams [and] managers of care and resources in emerging quality-driven delivery models such as ACOs [accountable care organizations],” the company said.

Demand for specialists is slightly lower, with 46% of residents in internal medicine, surgical, or diagnostic specialties getting more than 100 job offers and 64% getting more than 50. Current trends in mental health services, however, led Merritt Hawkins to single out psychiatry for special mention: 78% of final-year psychiatry residents had received more than 50 job solicitations – even more than primary care – although the number at the over-100 level, 48%, was lower, according to the report.

rfranki@frontlinemedcom.com