Job offers for final-year residents may be widely present, but burnout is a problem. A lack of business preparedness and gender differences on pay expectations are also significant issues.
These are just some of the multiple trends revealed in a 2023 AMN Healthcare report entitled "Survey of Final-Year Medical Residents: Many Job Choices, Many Reservations."
The data was collected from 241 final-year residents from a group of 13,000 recipients of emails sent during March to May 2023. Here's a deeper dive into some of the numbers from the report:
Job offers versus burnout
Medical residents may be "inundated" with job solicitations, with 56 percent receiving 100 or more offers, the highest number since 1991, when this survey first appeared. Differences existed between genders, with 61 percent of men versus 51 percent of women receiving such numbers of offers. At the same time, 81 percent of residents said they experienced significant burnout, up from 58 percent in 2021.
Ready to go?
Only 43 percent of residents said they were "somewhat prepared" to handle the business side of their medical career, compared with 58 percent in 2021 and 54 percent in 2019. Forty-eight percent of residents said they were unprepared for such work, compared with 32 percent in 2021 and 38 percent in 2019.
Pay expectations
Women expect to earn less than their male counterparts in their first practice. Fifty-eight percent of female residents expected to earn $251,000 or more, compared to 82 percent of male residents. When it comes to the top level of $326,000 or more, 53 percent of male residents expected such a figure, while only 32 percent of women did. About 35 percent of male primary care residents expect to make $301,000 or more, compared with just 4 percent of women.
Are there enough physicians to go around?
"As physicians age out of the profession or choose to leave, demand increases for those entering the workforce," according to the report. As shown by the multiple job offers, resident positions have increased, but the numbers have failed to keep up. The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034.