Why Do Residents Pursue Fellowship Training in Geriatric Medicine?

Despite the important role of Geriatricians in our society, there is a shortage of Geriatric Medicine specialists. This study surveyed fellows enrolled in ACGME approved Geriatric Medicine fellowships in the United States for insight into why they joined a Geriatric Medicine fellowship.

Survey links were sent to all Geriatric Medicine Program Directors from July-Sept in 2019 and 2020 and we asked them to share the surveys with their fellows. Survey responses were summarized using descriptive statistics. The Likert-scaled dataset was analyzed with percentage of responses for each item related to "influence" and "barrier" domains. We examined the associations between variables using the Chi-Square test. The free-text fields were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis.

There were 149 respondents (80% female) and approximately half of the respondents were from foreign medical schools (52%). Geriatric Medicine was the first fellowship choice for 75% of respondents. Among respondents who were US medical graduates, 89% chose Geriatric Medicine as first-choice specialty for fellowship, in contrast to 61.5% among the Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) (p < 0.001). Major reasons why fellows chose Geriatric Medicine were unique career opportunities and care of complex patients. The largest barrier/concern for pursuing Geriatric Medicine fellowship was the low salary associated with the field.

As the first national survey of Geriatric Medicine fellows evaluating their reasons for pursuing a Geriatric Medicine fellowship, these results can be used by Geriatric Medicine fellowship programs and health care systems to improve recruitment into Geriatric Medicine fellowships.