Perceptions of pediatric chief residents on minority house staff recruitment and retention in large pediatric residency programs.

This study examined methods of recruiting and retaining minority house staff at US residency training programs. A 28-item questionnaire was mailed to pediatric chief residents at 78 US training programs with more than 35 residents. The response rate was 74%. Programs were characterized by patient populations served, number of ethnic/racial minority house staff and faculty, and the presence of minority house staff support systems within the institution. In this largely urban sample, minority recruitment and retention was reported as an explicit priority by 40% of pediatric chief residents. The majority (71%) reported that their house staff recruitment committees had no explicitly defined recruitment goals regarding minority house staff. Seventy-seven percent reported that within their departments, recruitment efforts toward minorities were no different than for nonminorities. Overall, few minority house staff and minority faculty were identified in the responding institutions. The most frequently reported intra-institutional support systems for minority house staff included individual pairing with faculty advisors from the same minority group (29%), an affirmative-action office located at the institution (8%), and the existence of a minority faculty support group (4%). These results indicate that pediatric chief residents may not be fully aware of the specific challenges related to the recruitment and retention of minority physicians, and most house staff recruitment committees do not have explicit goals in this regard.