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During the congress, E-Posters will be accessible to all participants on the congress website 24/7, as well as in the E-poster stations in the congress center.
Preparing your E-Poster
Please review the E-Poster format requirements carefully when preparing your E-Poster. Should your E-Poster not meet the mentioned requirements, it may not be displayed as described above.
E-Poster Submission Deadline
Please prepare and upload your E-Poster no later than March 14, 2026 11.59PM CET. After this date, you will no longer be able to prepare and upload your E-poster and it will not be displayed and accessible on the congress website.
Please follow the instructions below to input your abstract title.
Abstract titles should be brief and reflect the content of the abstract.
Interest in nephrology among residents has declined, leaving more than half of fellowship positions in the United States unfilled. The reasons remain poorly understood. This study aimed to assess nephrology program directors’ (PDs) perspectives on factors influencing residents’ career choices.
Building on our prior analysis of residents’ perceptions, we designed a 40-item web-based survey including multiple-choice, yes/no, and open-ended questions. The survey was distributed to 169 nephrology PDs across the United States.
Of 169 PDs surveyed, 46 (27%) responded. Most directed university-based programs (84%) and were affiliated with hospitals >500 beds (77%). The majority of PDs believed residents find nephrology interesting (80%) but challenging (100%). While 85% of PDs were satisfied with the quality of nephrology education, only 50% felt that the exposure to nephrology during residency was adequate. According to the PDs, the leading factors deterring residents from applying to nephrology fellowship were: inadequate financial compensation (68%), poor work-life balance (64%), high stress (36.4%), difficult patient population (27%), and lack of prestige / influence (27%). Despite these challenges, 93% of PDs would choose nephrology again, and 89% would encourage residents to pursue it. Notably, 79% of PDs felt that non-nephrologists actively discourage residents from entering the field.
Nephrology program directors recognize the field as an intellectually stimulating vocation, yet acknowledge that structural barriers—particularly concerns about compensation, workload, and lifestyle—discourage residents from pursuing fellowship. Addressing these challenges will require targeted efforts to enhance clinical exposure during internal medicine residency, improve work-life balance, and strengthen the specialty’s visibility and value within the broader medical community.
