A Survey of Academic Emergency Medicine Department Chairs on Hiring New Attending Physicians

Abstract Background For graduating emergency medicine (EM) residents, little information exists as to what attributes department chairs are seeking in hiring new attendings. Study Objectives: To determine which qualities academic EM department chairs are looking for when hiring a new physician directly out of residency or fellowship. Methods An anonymous 15-item Web-based survey was sent to the department chairs of all accredited civilian EM residency programs in March of 2011. The questions assessed the desirability of different candidate attributes and the difficulty in recruiting EM-trained physicians. Respondents were also asked to give the current number of available job openings. Results Fifty-five percent of eligible department chairs responded. On a 5-point scale, the most important parts of a candidate's application were the interview (4.8 ± 0.4), another employee's recommendation (4.7 ± 0.5), and the program director's recommendation (4.5 ± 0.7). The single most important attribute possessed by a candidate was identified as “Ability to work in a team,” with 58% of respondents listing it as their top choice. Advanced training in ultrasound was listed as the most sought-after fellowship by 55% of the chairs. Overall, department chairs did not have a difficult time in recruiting EM-trained physicians, with 56% of respondents stating that they had no current job openings. Conclusion How a physician relates to others was consistently rated as the most important part of the candidate's application. However, finding a job in academic EM is difficult, with graduates having limited job prospects.