Contact Persons:
Richard Holloway, PhD
Department of Family and Community Medicine,
Medical College of Wisconsin
Phone: 414/456-8696
holloway@post.its.mcw.edu

Purpose:

Numerous discussions among leaders in family medicine have indicated long-standing difficulty in recruiting faculty to family medicine academic departments and residency programs. A survey we conducted early in 1994 indicated that there were about 500 unfilled faculty positions at that time, and an additional 675 were anticipated to be available within five years of that survey. The purpose of this project is to update our previous survey to assess the current need for faculty in family medicine departments and residency programs. We also will assess the accuracy of estimates of anticipated faculty positions from the previous survey. Given the profound economical and philosophical changes that have transpired in medical schools, residency programs and the health care market in general since 1994, coupled with the five-year window of the 1994 survey, it is advisable to replicate this study. Current anecdotal reports from family medicine faculty indicate that clinical responsibilities have increased and that there has been a concomitant decrease in research and educational time. Certainly, one would expect that these changes would be reflected in job openings currently available and anticipated to be available within the next three to five years. Thus, in addition to procuring valuable recruitment information, this survey will give an indication of the current picture of faculty responsibilities in new family medicine faculty positions.

Methods:

The survey builds upon methods employed in our previous survey (Holloway et al; Fam Med 1995:27:98-102). The survey asks about: unfilled faculty positions at their sites (both new positions and replacement positions), positions which they filled in the previous five years, and positions for which they anticipate recruitment in the next five years. The survey collects the following information on all positions: academic title of position; percent of time to be devoted to clinical, administrative, and research activities; primary focus of the position; date when the position became or will become available; the length of time the position was or has been unfilled. We anticipate a response rate similar to our previous survey (67% and 81% among residency programs and departments, respectively). Residency programs surveyed have been identified from the AAFP's current mailing of U.S. accredited residencies. Departments have been identified from the AAFP's list of "Activity in Family Medicine at 126 U.S. Medical and 12 Geographically-separated Campuses".

The first and second mailings of our survey to family medicine department chairs and residency program directors to assess the number of faculty positions recently filled and currently available, yielded an overall response rate of 59.1%. The department chairs have a response rate of 65.1%, with 57.5% of the residency program directors responding. The survey data from the first two mailings has been entered into a Microsoft Access database program. A third survey was sent out the first week of September; included with this mailing were personalized letters from the principal investigator to the department chairs as well as letters to the program directors. Analysis will primarily be descriptive. We will tabulate the number and type of available positions overall and separately for residency programs and medical school departments. We will describe the geographic distribution of the available positions, their primary focus, and the average percentage of time that will be spent in various activities. Comparisons will be made between the results of the 1994 survey and the current survey.

In addition to assessing the current faculty recruitment status in family medicine, we have also proposed to determine the extent of minority faculty involvement within the departments. For the purposes of this study, we are using the Health Resources and Services Administration definition of minority: American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, and Hispanic or Latino. During the second week of August, a supplemental survey was sent to family medicine department chairs which asked about the total number of minority faculty, their gender, and their ranking. These data will also be entered into a Microsoft Access database.