The wait has been long but a dreaded and expected date is getting closer and closer. This is the National Examination of Applicants for Medical Residencies (ENARM) that every year generates strong discussions among health professionals. The reality is that its impact remains in force and that can be seen in the thousands of young people who register. In the end it is a mandatory test for general practitioners who wish to become specialists.
In that sense, there is an aspect that is a constant and this time it is no exception. This is the limited number of places available. The direct consequence is that every year the majority of applicants are rejected. In some cases, even high performers don’t get a place due to high competition.
Insufficient places for so many interested
Until 2019, the outlook was critical because only two out of 10 young people were rejected. While for the ENARM 2020 edition there was a radical change. For the first time, the available places were doubled. Thanks to this, a total of 17,910 Mexican doctors and 263 foreigners were accepted. While the acceptance percentage was 42.2.
For this 2021 the number of places that will be offered has not yet been revealed but it is a reality that they must be at least the same as last year. With this it can be expected that there will be around 18 thousand places for residents. The figure already includes a thousand places to study the specialty abroad and, like last year, the only available country is Cuba.
In this sense, an increase in the total number of places offered could also be achieved. Although it seems very unlikely that the figure will double again. The biggest problem is that hospitals no longer have places to receive so many residents. Therefore, the first thing that is needed is to build new hospitals.
The biggest change for this 2021
Now, like every year the most common question is about the minimum scores for each of the available options. This leads to the biggest change that ENARM 2021 will undergo. For the first time the specialty will be chosen after taking the exam and not before.
Although the Interinstitutional Commission for the Training of Human Resources for Health (CIFRHS) has not disclosed the information on the minimum scores for each option of the ENARM 2021, the ideal is to analyze what happened last year.
With the above in mind, we share the official averages recorded last year. The important thing is to observe the minimum score for each specialty because for this year a similar figure could be requested.