2025 First Half Resident Recruitment Results
Only 1 in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2 in Neurology
Plastic Surgery Highest at 16.4%
As the resignation crisis among residents prolongs, the number of first-year resident recruits in the first half of next year reached only 5% of the recruitment quota. In particular, the number of residents in essential departments such as Obstetrics and Gynecology was found to be in the single digits.
According to the results of the 2025 first half first-year resident recruitment announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 20th, a total of 3,594 recruits were sought at 181 hospitals nationwide, with 181 out of 314 applicants finally selected. The number secured compared to the recruitment quota was only 5%.
Amid the resignation letters submitted by medical school professors nationwide taking effect, a patient is seen looking at medical staff at a large hospital in Seoul on April 26. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@
With the application rate itself being only 8.7%, and the final number of selected candidates further reduced, concerns are rising that the gap caused by residents’ resignations in February last year in protest of medical school enrollment increases will not be easily filled next year either.
Among the 181 first-year residents selected this time who will start training in March next year, 107 (5.5%) are residents at training hospitals in the metropolitan area, and 74 (4.5%) are in non-metropolitan areas, with 59.1% of the total selected being in the metropolitan area.
By specialty, Plastic Surgery had the highest securing rate, selecting 12 out of 73 recruits (16.4%). Psychiatry (19 selected out of 152 recruits), Pathology (9 out of 74), and Laboratory Medicine (5 out of 41) also recorded securing rates in the 12% range.
On the other hand, the securing rates for essential departments, which had been facing resident shortages even before the medical-government conflicts, were low. Obstetrics and Gynecology, which recruited 188, selected only 1, resulting in a securing rate of 0.5%. Neurology (2 selected out of 117 recruits), Pediatrics (5 out of 206), and Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (2 out of 65) had securing rates of 1.7%, 2.4%, and 3.1%, respectively.
Internal Medicine, which had the largest number of recruits, selected 20 out of 700 (2.9%), and Orthopedics secured 20 first-year residents out of 217 recruits (9.2%).
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