Evaluation of the impact of race/ethnicity on medical student's away rotations and residency match.

Purpose: Many studies have examined the impact away rotations have on the residency match outcomes of medical students, the common impression being that they are beneficial for match success. Little is known about whether race/ethnicity affects the relationship between away rotations and match success. This study explored the impact that race/ethnicity has on the likelihood of a medical student matching at a program where they did an away rotation to help inform student's decision making.

Methods: Alumni and post-match medical students at a US medical school, residents and attendings at the hospital associated with the medical school, and Black medical organization members completed a survey about their away rotation and match experience. Responses were collected from August 2023 to March 2024. The statistical analysis was done with Graphpad Prism.

Results: We analyzed 298 survey responses and found that while the respondents of all races did not feel that attending away rotations affected their match outcomes, Black respondents were significantly less likely to match at a program where they did an away rotation (p=0.02). There was a difference in the rates of students going into competitive specialties who matched at a place where they rotated between those who are underrepresented in medicine (23.1 %) and those who are not (44.1 %), but this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.16).

Conclusion: A one-size-fits-all recommendation for away rotations does not take into account the different realities faced by medical students. The impact that race/ethnicity can have on a student's match success should be acknowledged by students and advisors when making decisions about away rotations.