Prioritization of Diversity During the Residency Match: Trends for a New Workforce

The medical community has been paying increasing attention to diversity. Nascent research suggests that the physician workforce may be experiencing value shifts in this area.

This study aims to understand how residency applicant perspectives toward diversity may be evolving.

The National Resident Matching Program surveys all applicants regarding factors they consider important when ranking residency programs. Survey data from 2008-2017 were analyzed for changes in respondent perceptions of cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity of geographic location (geographic diversity) and cultural, racial, ethnic, and gender diversity at the destination institution (institutional diversity). We calculated weighted averages and visualized: percentage of respondents citing diversity as a factor when applying for interviews; and mean applicant ratings of diversity when ranking programs, using a 5-point scale (1, not important, to 5, extremely important).

Respondents at 5 time points ranged from 13 156 to 16 575, with response rates from 42.4% to 58.5%. Between 2008 and 2017, the percentage of applicants citing diversity as a consideration when applying to interview increased from 27.8% to 33.2% for geographic diversity and from 22.3% to 33.8% for institutional diversity. Applicants' mean ratings of importance of diversity when ranking programs increased from 2.7 to 4.2 for geographic diversity and from 2.4 to 4.2 for institutional diversity.

Over the past 9 years and across specialties, a growing percentage of applicants are considering geographic and institutional diversity when applying to interview at residency programs. Applicants report that both forms of diversity are increasingly important when ranking programs.