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A Shortage of Medical Residency Positions: Parallels with Psychology

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Abstract

Physician shortages in the US are expected to intensify with the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. These shortages may negatively impact access to care, quality of care, and confidence in the system’s ability to adequately provide for health needs in the US. Concerns regarding physician demand underscore how critical Graduate Medical Education funding is to preparing the physician workforce. In 2014 5.6 % of US medical school seniors did not match into residency. Psychology has faced longstanding training imbalance issues with a misalignment between the number of internship positions and the number of applicants. The authors summon attention to the damaging effects a training imbalance poses to a health care profession, its trainees, and ultimately the public it serves.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are members of the Research Committee of APAHC, the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers. We thank the APAHC Board of Directors for its ongoing support of the Research Committee’s work.

Disclosures

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Donna LaPaglia

  2. University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    William N. Robiner

  3. University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, USA

    John A. Yozwiak

  4. Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Cheryl Brosig

  5. Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Barbara Cubic

  6. New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA

    Gerald Leventhal

Authors
  1. Donna LaPaglia
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  2. William N. Robiner
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  3. John A. Yozwiak
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  4. Cheryl Brosig
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  5. Barbara Cubic
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  6. Gerald Leventhal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donna LaPaglia.

Additional information

Material was presented as a poster Expanding the Supply of Residency Training Slots for Medical School Graduates: Lessons Learned from the Supply–Demand Imbalance of Psychology Training Internship Slots, at the 2013 AAMC Physician Workforce Research Conference in Alexandria, VA.

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LaPaglia, D., Robiner, W.N., Yozwiak, J.A. et al. A Shortage of Medical Residency Positions: Parallels with Psychology. Acad Psychiatry 39, 706–712 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-015-0324-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-015-0324-y

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