Attrition rates of residents in postgraduate training programs.

Background: One goal of program directors is to attract and retain high-quality residents. It is therefore important to study attrition of residents to determine specific cohorts that may be less likely to complete residency training.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate attrition rates in targeted programs.

Methods: Surveys were sent to 540 program directors whose programs contained at least 25% international medical graduates. The program directors reported both voluntary attrition and termination rates.

Results: Overall attrition rates for international medical graduates and U.S. medical graduates were similar, although U.S. medical graduates were terminated at a slightly lower rate than international medical graduates (2.5% vs. 3.6%) and were somewhat more likely to transfer to other programs (9.9% and 8.9%).

Conclusions: Attrition from these programs remains a small but persistent issue. In addition, the differences in termination and transfer rates for the 2 years of the study were greater than the differences in rates between U.S. and international medical graduates.