A Transitional Year Residency Program Provides Innovative Solutions for Unmatched Medical Students

The transition to residency is competitive with more medical students applying for residency positions than slots available, and some will face challenges securing a position in their desired specialty. Our institution created a transitional year (TY) residency program in 2016 to help meet the needs of our medical students who did not initially secure a position in the main residency Match.

This report provides a brief overview of the TY program and analysis of the program's value from the inaugural 3 years (2017-2020).

The TY program is based at a midsized, urban, academic health center and features a tailorable curriculum emphasizing preparation for residents' specialty career plans. We used participatory action research and appreciative inquiry strategies as part of the annual program evaluation to examine TY residents' perceptions of the program's value. Stakeholder perceptions were also elicited from a purposive selection of 4 program directors and 2 key medical school education leaders.

Internal evaluations revealed a high rate of resident satisfaction with the TY program and self-reported benefits such as increased confidence, clinical proficiency, and professional enculturation. Stakeholders valued the program as a potential pipeline for increasing physicians in the state and providing valuable direction to students' career trajectories.

Creating a TY residency program to meet the needs of unmatched medical students was feasible to implement, acceptable to residents in meeting their academic and career needs, and provided a sustainable institutional solution with benefits to multiple stakeholders.