METHODOLOGY BOX LINK
METHODOLOGY BOX LINK
Methodology: Since the late 1990s, the Center for Health Workforce Studies, which is located at the University at Albany, State University of New York, has surveyed residents and fellows in New York State each spring as they complete their training. The survey asks several questions related to post-training plans and experiences finding a job. From these questions, CHWS developed a demand index. Using this demand index, they rank the relative demand for the 25 largest specialties: the specialty with the highest relative demand is ranked first and the specialty with the lowest relative demand is ranked 25th. CHWS has achieved consistency in the metric by using the same basic questions and methodology for the surveys throughout its 17 years of existence. With the excellent collaboration of teaching hospitals, a total of 2,897 of the estimated 5,308 physicians finishing a residency or fellowship training program completed the 2015 Exit Survey (55 percent response rate). To measure demand, each specialty is ranked on each of the following demand indicators:
- Percentage of respondents having difficulty finding a satisfactory practice position;
- Percentage of respondents having to change plans due to limited practice opportunities;
- Mean number of job offers received by respondents;
- Respondents’ perceptions of the regional job market (within 50 miles of their training program);
- Respondents’ perceptions of the national job market; and,
- Trends in median starting income.
Only residents and fellows completing training in New York State who had actively searched for a job are included in the survey, and they may or may not be representative of physicians training in the U.S. While New York State trains about 15 percent of all residents and fellows in the US, the job market they face may be very different than that in other parts of the country. We do know that New York State Graduate Medical Education has an unusually high percent of International Medical Graduates on temporary visas (about 18 percent), but they have been excluded from the demand index.