Advising Needs of Osteopathic Medical Students Preparing for the Match

Concern over the number of residency positions available to graduating osteopathic medical students has led to calls for better advising, but there is little research on the relationship between student advising and successful matching.

To determine the satisfaction of graduating osteopathic medical students with their residency match advising, and to compare advising satisfaction with residency match results.

A 30-item survey was developed for students preparing for the residency match. The survey was e-mailed to fourth-year osteopathic medical students at Midwestern University/Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine in February 2015, before the National Matching Services match and the National Resident Matching Program match.

Of the 242 surveys sent, 95 were received and 90 (37%) contained sufficient information for analysis. Of the 90 respondents, 41 (45%) agreed with the statement "My advising needs were adequately met," and 32 (36%) disagreed. Pearson product moment correlations revealed that having one's advising needs met was correlated to having clear career goals (r=0.44, n=77; P<.001), having a match strategy (r=0.40, n=78; P<.001), having confidence in one's qualifications for his or her top choice (r=0.40, n=81; P<.001), and matching to the top choice specialty (r=0.37, n=81; P=.001) and program (r=0.27, n=81; P=.016).

A range of advising resources was shown to be effective for most students during the residency match. Further research is needed to determine whether different advising methods for different academically performing groups or different demographic groups will increase students' ability to successfully match.