Highlights
- •Providers attuned to a patient's cultural heritage enhance the patient's experience.
- •Lagging diversity among surgeons foments racial/ethnic inequities in surgical care.
- •Minority representation within surgery residency was examined from 2005 to 2019.
- •Program applicants increased in diversity but actual minority recruitment stagnated.
- •Surgery residency diversification efforts must be expanded to be effective nationally.
Abstract
Background
Cultural affinity with a provider improves satisfactoriness of healthcare. We examined
2005–2019 trends in racial/ethnic diversity/inclusion within general surgery residency
programs.
Methods
We triangulated 2005–2019 race/ethnicity data from Association of American Medical
Colleges surveys of 4th-year medical students, the Electronic Residency Application
Service, and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-affiliated general
surgery residencies. Temporal trends in minority representation were tested for significance.
Results
Underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities in medicine (URiMs) increased among graduating
MDs from 7.6% in 2005 to 11.8% in 2019 (p < 0.0001), as did their proportion among
surgery residency applicants during 2005–2019 (p < 0.0001). However, proportions of
URiMs among general surgery residents (≈8.5%), and of programs without URiMs (≈18.8%),
stagnated.
Conclusions
Growing URiM proportions among medical school graduates and surgery residency applicants
did not improve URiM representation among surgery trainees nor shrink the percentage
of programs without URiMs. Deeper research into motivators underlying URiMs’ residency
program preferences is warranted.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 11, 2023
Accepted:
January 8,
2023
Received in revised form:
December 25,
2022
Received:
August 28,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc.
