A method to assess the trainee profiles of medical students attracted to our physical medicine and rehabilitation residency training program.

A 35-item questionnaire was designed to assess the relative importance of various factors to medical students when ranking physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) residency training programs. The questionnaire was used to assess the relative importance of the various factors to three groups of medical students: those who interviewed, those who matched and those who were listed on the match list of the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) Department of PM&R, as well as our current residents. Recipients were asked to grade selection factors based on a numerical scale: 1, extremely important; 2, very important; 3, important; 4, minimally important; 5, not important. A response rate of 100% (n = 72 medical students + 25 residents) was attained. The analysis indicates that, overall, there is no significant difference in ranking of the factors by each of the four groups. However, the medical students who recently matched with the UMDNJ-NJMS PM&R program rated the opportunity to conduct research significantly higher than the current house staff or the medical students on the entire match list. This is a desirable result, as the program strives to provide an environment that is conducive to the growth of research and academic physiatrists. This questionnaire could also be used by other residency training directors to guide the development of their program and to gain valuable information regarding the perception of their program among in-coming residents and the importance of various factors to the students interested in their program.