Careers chosen by graduates of a major pediatrics residency program, 1974-1986

Knowing the career choices of a residency program's graduates helps those who direct the program improve their intern selection process, fashion a more appropriate curriculum, and assess the professional choices of their trainees. This report presents a summary of data the authors obtained in 1988 and 1989 on the career choices of 270 of the 276 graduates who had served at least two years in the pediatrics residency at The Boston Children's Hospital between 1974 and 1986. The study findings are compared with the findings of two other national surveys of career choices of pediatrics residents. The data indicate that 66% of the 270 graduates were in academic pediatrics careers, which is much higher than the 20-23% of those involved in such careers nationwide. The remaining graduates were either in pediatrics practice (31%) or in other professional activities (3%), such as working at the National Institutes of Health, in public health, and for industry. There was a steady increase in the percentage of women over the 12-year period covered by the study, from 30% to 39%. These and many more findings brought to light program deficiencies in a number of areas, which are now being remedied.