Residency

Does the type of training program accreditation affect professional satisfaction levels of osteopathic medical school graduates?

Residency Program Connection, March 31, 2009

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The type of residency training program graduates of osteopathic medical schools attend—ACGME, American Osteopathic Association (AOA), or dually-accredited—may not affect their professional satisfaction levels, according to a new study.

Researchers osteopathic family physicians, who finished residency training during1999–2003, conducted a survey designed to measure professional satisfaction levels. Of those who responded, 15.8% graduated from an AOA-accredited residency program, 52.3% from an ACGME-accredited program, and 30.9% from a dually accredit program.

Regarding satisfaction levels, survey respondents reported the following:

  • 22.3% were less than happy with their career choice
  • 34.2% were thinking of changing their specialty
  • 4.7% were not currently practicing family medicine
Graduates from ACGME-accredited programs did report slightly higher levels of satisfactions compared to those who completed AOA or dually accredited programs, but differences were extremely small and researchers deemed them trivial.

This study, “Professional satisfaction among new osteopathic family physicians: a survey-based investigation of residency-trained graduates” was performed by researchers at Ohio University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine and appeared in the February issue of the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.



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