Emergency medicine resident choice of practice location

To describe the geographic distribution of practice locations for 1995 emergency medicine residency graduates and factors that are important to residents in their choice of practice location.

Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to Emergency medicine residents who graduated in 1995. The survey ascertained practice city and state, resident employment characteristics, and the importance of factors that influenced the residents' selection of employment.

Eighty-six of 87 programs and 441 (69.4%) of 635 eligible residents participated. Forty-three percent of graduates chose to practice in the city or metropolitan area in which they trained; 46% of these had no personal tie to the area before their residency training. Liking the city was cited as being more important (P<.001) than other factors in picking practice location. Group personality and coworkers' credentials were more important (P< or =.01) than contract and salary arrangement. Twenty percent of respondents were not practicing in the city or area of their first choice.

Residency training location, regardless of prior ties to the geographical area, appears to be a major factor in the choice of practice location of emergency medicine residency graduates. Coworkers' personalities and credentials are more important factors in job selection than salary and employment arrangements.