The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Geographic Placement of Applicants to General Surgery Residency Programs

OBJECTIVE

COVID-19 greatly influenced medical education and the residency match. As new guidelines were established to promote safety, travel was restricted, visiting rotations discontinued, and residency interviews turned virtual. The purpose of this study is to assess the geographic trends in distribution of successfully matched General Surgery applicants prior to and after the implementation of pandemic guidelines, and what we can learn from them as we move forward.

DESIGN

This was a retrospective review of 129 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited, academic General Surgery Residency Programs across 46 states and the District of Columbia. Categorically matched residents’ medical schools (i.e., home institutions), medical school states, and medical school regions as defined per the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), were compared to the same geographic datapoints as their residency program. Preliminary residents were excluded. Residents in the 2018, 2019, and 2020 cycles were sub-categorized into the “pre-COVID” group and residents in the 2021 and 2022 applications cycles were sub-categorized into the “post-COVID” group. The percentages of residents who matched at their home institution, in-state, and in-region were examined.

SETTING

Multiple ACGME-accredited, university-affiliated General Surgery Residency Programs across the United States of America.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 4033 categorical General Surgery residents were included.

RESULTS

Of 4033 categorical residents who matched between 2018 and 2022, 56.1% (n = 2,263) were in the pre-COVID group and 43.9% (n = 1770) were in the post-COVID group. In the pre-COVID group 14.4% (n = 325) of residents remained in-home (IH), 24.4% (n = 553) in-state (IS), and 37.0% (n = 837) in- region (IR), compared to 18.8% IH (n = 333), 27.8% IS (n = 492), and 39.9% IR (n = 706) in the post-COVID group, respectively. Significant increases for IH and IS resident matching at 4.5% and 3.4%, respectively, were noted in the post-COVID period (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the ensuing changes adopted to promote safety, significantly impacted medical student opportunities and the General Surgery residency application process. General Surgery match data over the last 5 years reveals a statistically significant increase in the percentage of applicants matching at in-home and in-state institutions after the pandemic.