Who and where are the doctors trained by the residence of the Hospital das Clínicas of the University of São Paulo?

Abstract

Introduction: The Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP) has an essential role in the formation of specialist doctors. However, the residents’ profile from the biggest medical complex of Latin America is still unclear. Objective: To describe the general characteristics and the geographic distribution of the medical residents from HCFMUSP. Also, compare the “Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo” (FMUSP) graduated residents with the other institutions’ graduated residents’ profile. Methodology: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study based on secondary data from professional records and medical training. The geographic information was plotted using map of points and the tabulations presented were performed with IBM 24.0 SPSS® software. The differences between the FMUSP and non FMUSP groups were analyzed using the chi-square test for categorical variables and the t-test for continuous variables. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The study considered 8468 doctors who were attending or had completed Medical Residency at Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade de São Paulo between 1999 and 2019. Of these, 47.5% were women. The average age at admission was 26.8 years. 77.1% of physicians graduated in public schools. The most sought specialties were Internal Medicine (11.2%), General Surgery (8.7%) and Pediatrics (7.7%). The majority was born (58.0%) and lives (71.9%) in São Paulo state. Moreover, it is observed that residents were concentrated in the main capitals of Brazil in 2019. About the graduation school of the residents, it was found that 66.2% are from non FMUSP medical schools and about 25% came from the Northeast region. Discussion: In the residence programs, not only the offer of vacancies have to be considered, but the physicians’ characteristics, profile, trajectory, origin and graduation school too, since these factors can be determinant in the specialty choice and in their future decision about insertion and location of the professional exercise. Conclusion: This study has shown that the demographic characteristics and information about the trajectories and choices of resident physicians are relevant to the evaluation of the training institution and to the planning policies for the medical workforce.