The Case for Capping Residency Interviews

Morgan, Helen; Winkel, Abigail Ford; Standiford, Taylor; Muñoz, Rodrigo A.; Strand, Eric A.; Marzano, David; Ogburn, Tony; Major, Carol; Cox, Susan M.; Hammoud, Maya M.

doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2020.08.033

Cited by 53 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…146 A small cohort of highly competitive applicants accept and attend a disproportionate number of interviews, and virtual interviews are likely to exacerbate this maldistribution by removing cost and travel constraints. 147 Calls for interview caps are growing, 148,149 and ophthalmology utilized a centralized scheduling platform to limit applicants to 20 virtual inteviews. 150 Likewise, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopaedic surgery, and dermatology implemented standardized interview offer dates with acceptance windows, creating a predictable timeline.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systems-Level Reforms to the US Resident Selection Process: A Scoping Review

Zastrow

Burk-Rafel²,

London

2021

Journal of Graduate Medical Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Calls to reform the US resident selection process are growing, given increasing competition and inefficiencies of the current system. Though numerous reforms have been proposed, they have not been comprehensively cataloged. Objective This scoping review was conducted to characterize and categorize literature proposing systems-level reforms to the resident selection process. Methods Following Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, searches of Embase, MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were performed for references published from January 2005 to February 2020. Articles were included if they proposed reforms that were applicable or generalizable to all applicants, medical schools, or residency programs. An inductive approach to qualitative content analysis was used to generate codes and higher-order categories. Results Of 10 407 unique references screened, 116 met our inclusion criteria. Qualitative analysis generated 34 codes that were grouped into 14 categories according to the broad stages of resident selection: application submission, application review, interviews, and the Match. The most commonly proposed reforms were implementation of an application cap (n = 28), creation of a standardized program database (n = 21), utilization of standardized letters of evaluation (n = 20), and pre-interview screening (n = 13). Conclusions This scoping review collated and categorized proposed reforms to the resident selection process, developing a common language and framework to facilitate national conversations and change.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systems-Level Reforms to the US Resident Selection Process: A Scoping Review

Zastrow

Burk-Rafel²,

London

2021

Journal of Graduate Medical Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This effect can be dramatic: in both internal medicine and general surgery, 12% of applicants hold 50% of available interview positions [ 11 ]. Computer modeling demonstrates that overapplication can lead to a paradoxical increase in both unfilled programs and unmatched candidates, as programs are less able to discern sincere interest and offer interviews to the same applicants [ 12 , 13 ]. Overapplication may lead some program directors to decline to interview top-performing candidates, a counterintuitive decision based on the perceived low likelihood that the applicant will rank the program highly.…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other policies could attempt to reduce the value of overapplication. For instance, a limit might be placed on the number of interviews an applicant could accept [ 12 , 25 ]. If applying to additional programs cannot result in more interviews, well-qualified applicants might choose to apply more selectively.…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application Fever: Reviewing the Causes, Costs, and Cures for Residency Application Inflation

Carmody¹,

Rosman²,

Carlson³

2021

Cureus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past decade, the number of residency applications submitted per applicant has nearly doubled. This epidemic of "Application Fever" is expensive for applicants, burdensome for programs, and ultimately does not improve overall Match outcomes. In this review, we discuss the phenomenon of Application Fever, with a focus on contributing factors and costs of this behavior. Application Fever has its origins in the early 1990s. At that time, the number of residency applicants began to outpace the number of available positions. Because an applicant who applies to more residency programs has a greater probability of securing a residency position than an otherwise equivalent applicant who applies to fewer, "overapplication" became a dominant strategy and residency applicants began to apply to more residency programs each year. This trend was enhanced and enabled by the introduction of the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Although Application Fever is a rational decision for applicants, it imposes a substantial evaluative burden on program directors and necessitates the use of convenience screening metrics. We then briefly review potential solutions, including informational strategies, application limits, and marketplace incentives to reduce application numbers. Although a fixed cap on applications would reduce application numbers and facilitate a holistic selection process, greater transparency from residency programs regarding their selection criteria would be required to help applicants choose where to apply. To improve the residency application process for programs and applicants alike, we call upon the medical community to further study Application Fever and carefully consider solutions, including fixed application caps.

show abstract

“…This led to concerns that the most competitive candidates could potentially fill up interview spots at an increased number of programs, thus causing other qualified but slightly less competitive candidates to be left without interviews. Programs therefore had legitimate concerns that by interviewing these highly competitive candidates they could end up with unmatched spots [ 21 ]. Fortunately, preliminary data from a subset of over 60 surgery residency programs showed that these fears appear to be unfounded, as they did not find an increase in the number of interviews received by the top candidates [ 22 ].…”

Section: Increased Number Of Applications Per Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual Recruitment in Surgical Residency Programs

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose of Review The Covid-19 pandemic forced residency programs to drastically change their interview processes and adopt virtual interviewing for the 2020–2021 match cycle. Recent Findings While virtual interviewing decreased cost and increased convenience for applicants and programs involved in the match, it also introduced several potential disadvantages. Maximizing technological capabilities was an area of utmost concern at the start of the interview cycle, and multiple medical education organizations quickly recommended ways to move to virtual process, and to prevent and troubleshoot technical problems. However, other issues were less straightforward, such as how to address new sources of bias introduced by virtual interviewing, and how to ensure that programs and applicants could make informed decisions about their rank lists after only limited virtual interactions. Additionally, the increased convenience of interviewing raised concerns that students would accept more interviews, disrupting the established calculus programs used to determine how many interviews to offer per spot available. Summary In this review, we examine the benefits and disadvantages of virtual interviewing, review recommendations from the current literature on how to improve the process, and discuss what we learned from our own experience at an academic general surgery residency program over the course of this unprecedented interview season.

show abstract

The Case for Capping Residency Interviews

Cited by 53 publications

References 23 publications

Systems-Level Reforms to the US Resident Selection Process: A Scoping Review

Systems-Level Reforms to the US Resident Selection Process: A Scoping Review

Application Fever: Reviewing the Causes, Costs, and Cures for Residency Application Inflation

Virtual Recruitment in Surgical Residency Programs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About