Results of the 2004 survey of the American Association of Academic Chief Residents in Radiology.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVE: Every year, the American Association of Academic Chief Residents in Radiology (A3CR2) conducts a survey of the chief residents in accredited radiology programs in the United States and Canada. The purpose of the survey is to evaluate current residents' opinions regarding a number of different issues pertaining to their educational experience, work responsibilities, and benefits. This information is useful in monitoring patterns of change in resident attitudes toward their experiences within their residency training programs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Online surveys were made available to the chief residents from 193 training programs in North America. For the most part, the questions were presented in a multiple-choice format, with additional space for elaboration or comments provided for many of the items. Some questions are repeated annually, addressing general topics such as salary and hospital size. However, new questions are incorporated each year. In particular, this year's survey included questions pertaining to Armed Forces Institute of Pathology course funding, and advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) /basic life support certification and changes in duty work hour and call requirements in the face of changing ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) regulations.

RESULTS: The results of the survey were then tabulated, and responses to several of the repeated questions were compared with those from prior surveys dating back to 1996. This year's response rate was 55%, with 106 unique responses received. This represents an improvement since last year's survey, when the response rate was 41%. In some cases, more than one response was generated by a given residency program, in which case the questionnaire that was more thoroughly completed was used for statistical analysis. Responses were received from chief residents in 37 states and in Canada. The largest number of respondents was from New York, and 80% percent of respondents were from programs affiliated with a university. Forty-two percent were incoming chief residents with less than 3 months' experience, whereas 58% were outgoing chief residents with less than 9 months remaining in their tenure.

CONCLUSION: The majority of respondents report that changes made by their respective programs as the result of new ACGME maximum duty hour standards have been viewed favorably by radiology residents. Many training programs have moved toward a night float based call system in order to maintain compliance. Nearly all programs have overnight in-house radiology resident coverage, but there has been a slight decline in the percentage of programs that provide in-house attending coverage at night. The majority of residents, however, have access to attendings after-hours by pager. Finally, resident salaries and benefits continue to increase, as has been the trend over the past several years.