Disclosures: Sterling Haring, DO, MPH: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: Characterize plans to pursue clinical fellowship among graduating PM&R residents at US PM&R residency programs.

Design: Survey disseminated to PM&R residency program directors nationwide.

Setting : Online survey provided via email to residency program directors to current PGY-4 PM&R residents. Survey was conducted Between January and early March 2020.

Participants : Graduating (PGY-4) PM&R residents at PM&R residencies in the United States.

Interventions: We administered a dynamic survey designed to ascertain plans for post-residency clinical fellowship training at matriculation and graduation and factors contributing to fellowship plan change. We also sought to characterize perceptions of clinical fellowships frequency among graduating residents.

Main Outcome Measures: Binary plans for clinical fellowship at matriculation into and graduation from residency; self-reported plans for type of fellowship being pursued; self-reported training-related factors contributing to change or maintenance of fellowship plans.

Results: One hundred sixty-five graduating residents responded to the survey. Of these, 121 (73.3%) are currently planning to matriculate into clinical fellowship after residency completion. One hundred two (61.8%) were planning to pursue fellowship at the time of matriculation into residency, representing an increase of 11.5%. Of the 135 residents who changed their mind about whether to pursue fellowship, 34 (25.2%) changed their plans with regard to their anticipated fellowship sub-specialty; several underlying reasons for change were reported. Forty-eight percent agreed that their anticipated subspecialty influenced their choice of residency program, and 62.8 reported that they would choose their program again based on their current subspecialty plans. On the same scale, 80% of respondents felt that they will graduate with a sufficiently strong skill set to be successful in general PM&R practice without fellowship training. Eighty-seven percent of respondents underestimated the number of residents entering fellowship. Conclusions: Residency selection is strongly influenced by anticipated fellowship plans, despite those plans frequently changing during training. One-fifth of graduating residents feel that they are under-prepared for general PM&R practice.

Level of Evidence: Level IV

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/changes-in-fellowship-plans-among-graduating-residents-in-pmr/