Increasing Competition for Residency Positions

 

According to the AAMC, the United States will have a shortage of 90,000 physicians by 2020. In the mid-1990s, the AAMC urged medical schools to expand enrollment. Class sizes have increased, and eleven new schools have opened their doors with several more in position to do so in 2013. Last week, the University of Texas at Austin announced plans to begin enrolling students at their new medical school in 2015 or 2016.

 

Total enrollment at osteopathic schools has also increased. Twenty percent of all U.S. medical students are now training in osteopathic schools. As with allopathic schools, there has been a considerable increase in the number of first-year positions through expansion of class size and the development of new schools. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, more schools may be on the way in Utah.

 

Rising enrollment in medical schools has not led to a corresponding increase in the number of first-year residency positions. “This won’t amount to a single new doctor in practice without an expansion of residency positions,” said AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, MD in an American Medical News article. Expansion of positions is tied to the availability of funds for graduate medical education from the federal government.

 

For residency applicants, this has led to increased competition for the available residency positions, a situation that is likely to get worse in the near future.