262 CAREER CHOICE Stern et al. · ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND RESIDENT CAREER CHOICE RESEARCH CONCEPTS The Impact of Environmental Factors on Emergency Medicine Resident Career Choice

Abstract. Objective: To evaluate the impact of en-vironmental factors on emergency medicine (EM) res-ident career choice. Methods: Program directors of all U.S. EM residencies were surveyed in November 1997. A 22-item questionnaire assessed resources al-located to research, fellowship availability, academic productivity of faculty and residents, and career choices of residency graduates. Results: The response rate was 83%. The program director (mean 6 SD) es-timates of resident career choice were as follows: 27.8 6 19.1 % pursued academic positions with emphasis on teaching, 5.4 6 9.8 % pursued academic positions with emphasis on research, and 66.8 6 23.1%, pur-sued private practice positions. In addition, 5.70 6 6.13 % of the residency graduates were estimated t