Recent trends in psychiatry residency workforce with special reference to international medical graduates.
OBJECTIVE
This study examines trends in the supply, distribution, and demographics of psychiatry residents during the 1990s. It evaluates the extent to which the predicted downsizing of psychiatry residency training programs actually occurred and how it affected training programs of different sizes and locations.


METHODS
Data for this study were obtained from the American Medical Association's (AMA) Annual Survey of Graduate Medical Education (GME) Programs, the AMA GME directory, and the APA Graduate Medical Census. The study compares the roles played by international medical graduates (IMGs) in contrast to U.S. medical graduates (USMGs) in these trends.


RESULTS
There was a significant decline in the number of residents during the years studied. The median training program size also decreased. International medical graduates found broad acceptance in training programs of all locations and sizes, including medical school based programs. Implications of the findings are discussed regarding the impact of current graduate medical education (GME) and immigration policies on future workforce patterns.


CONCLUSIONS
The field will have to decide whether it can afford anymore residency downsizing in light of emerging evidence of a shortage of psychiatrists.
Rao
Nyapati R
NR
Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York SUNY-Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Box 1203, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA. nrraomd@pol.net
D003625:Data Collection; D005550:Foreign Medical Graduates / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce