• Madison L Goss, Sarah E McNutt, David R Hallan, and Jesse E Bible.
• From the Penn State College of Medicine (Ms. Goss, Ms. McNutt, Mr. Hallan), Hershey, PA, and Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (Dr. Bible), Hershey, PA.
• J Am Acad Orthop Surg. 2020 Dec 15; 28 (24): 1055-1060.

BackgroundOrthopaedics continues to remain the medical specialty with the lowest sex diversity in the United States. Orthopaedic residency programs are highly motivated to attract the best female candidates in an effort to improve their program diversity, but no studies currently exist that examine the factors of highest importance to female applicants for orthopaedic residency selection.MethodsA two-part survey was sent to female orthopaedic residents by e-mails available in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery directory, residency program coordinators, Doximity, and institutional websites. The survey included 17 characteristics of residency programs that participants were asked to score for importance and then asked to rank their top five most influential factors when selecting an orthopaedic surgery residency.ResultsThe most important factors included camaraderie among residents, happiness of current residents, variety/number of cases, fellowship placement, and early surgical/clinical experience, respectively. The least important factors included sex diversity of faculty and residents, number of female residents, concurrent fellows, number of female faculty geographic location near spouse, and finally, attitudes toward maternity leave.DiscussionThese data support the notion that efforts by orthopaedic residency programs to improve desirability for female applicants should focus on highlighting some of the more universal, nonsex-related factors such as the happiness and camaraderie among residents and the anticipated clinical experiences. This is opposed to showcasing features, such as maternity leave and number of current female faculty or residents, which would seemingly appeal to female applicants.

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