Virtual Recruitment in Surgical Residency Programs

Abstract

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.

No difference in subsequent trainee satisfaction associated with in-person exposure prior to remote interviews

“…Future steps to take could include evaluating satisfaction between new resident cohorts who did in-person interviews versus those who did virtual interviews to further explore how in-person impacts overall satisfaction. Also, assessing how certain features of a virtual interview, such as pre-interview socials with current residents [ 2 , 3 ] or provision of pre-interview materials [ 11 ], may enhance overall satisfaction with both the interview and program.…”

Virtual interviews for admission to health care residency programs during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…There has been speculation on how virtual interviews could affect socioeconomic, gender, and ethnic diversity of selected applicants, which has been defined as institutionalized discrimination in the virtual era. 8 For example, an applicant with a slow internet connection or with a low-resolution camera and/or audio equipment could give a worse overall impression in a virtual interview than in person.…”

“…Although virtual interviews are common in recruitment processes, experience with this type of interview for resident selection had been limited until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. [7][8][9][10] So much so that the United States Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and other educational institutions recommended conducting virtual interviews for selection processes in 2020. 11 For this reason, our objective was to describe the experience of virtual interviews conducted to select residents through applicants' perception.…”

Understanding General Surgery Applicant Expectations and Perceptions in the Virtual Interview Process

“…The virtual interview concept has been rapidly adopted and adapted by programs and applicants over the past two years. 14 Given the current status of the pandemic, successful implementation of virtual interviews and other benefits (costs, equity, reduced stress of travel), 15 , 16 it is likely that the residency interview process may remain virtual in the coming years. As the virtual interview process progresses, it is important to continue assessing the value and efficacy of this new format.…”