Differential Motivations for Pursuing Interventional Radiology: Implications for Residency Recruitment

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the motivations of interventional radiology (IR) residency, IR fellowship, and diagnostic radiology (DR) applicants.

Materials and methods: A questionnaire was distributed to IR integrated residency and IR fellowship applicants for the 2018 National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) Match. Survey respondents scored the influence of 13 aspects of IR on their career decision. These results were combined with a previously published survey of DR residency applicants from 2016 who were asked the same questions. Pairwise comparisons to survey responses were made between IR residency and IR fellowship as well as IR residency and DR residency respondents.

Results: There were 202 of 657 DR residency respondents (response rate 30.7%), 114 of 295 IR residency respondents (response rate 38.6%), and 70 of 169 IR fellowship respondents (response rate 41.4%). Compared with DR respondents, IR residency respondents rated the following factors more positively: influence of a mentor (P = .030), perceived job satisfaction (P < .001), job market (P < .001), salary (P < .001), intellectual stimulation (P = .030), the use of emerging or advanced technology (P < .001), and the visual nature of the field (P < .001). In contrast, DR residency respondents rated flexible work hours (P < .001), physics (P < .001), and competitiveness of the application process (P < .001) more positively than IR respondents. Compared with IR fellowship respondents, IR residency respondents rated flexible work hours (P = .002), the job market (P = .020), physics (P < .001), and salary (P < .001) more positively, and competitiveness (P = .002) was felt to be more negative for residency applicants.

Conclusion: The motivations for pursuing IR residency differ from both DR residency and IR fellowship. Understanding these motivations can help to recruit top quality IR residency applicants.