Evaluating Applications for Interviews and the Rank Nancy McDowell And Machell Thompson

Getting to know your Applicants Do you have medical students rotate on surgery with your teaching faculty? 4 th year electives? Bring 3 rd year experience to the ranking committee (preceptors and evaluations) Utilize preceptors from 4 th year electives Nurses / hospital personnel

Screening from the File AOA Board Scores (minimal acceptable score) Grade in surgery (honors or “A”) Letters of recommendation Dean’s letter Comments from the rotations

Letters of Recommendation Look for superlatives Results orientation – consistently works hard, team player Analytical/problem solving skills – learns new material quickly Interpersonal skills – self-confidence, flexible professionalism Organizational skills – sets priorities, handles multiple assignments General medical knowledge – knowledge base exceeds that expected at this level of training

What Types of Questions do you ask the applicant? Are the questions predetermined or do they “wing it”? Are the candidates asked the same questions by different interviewers? The candidate may be less enthusiastic by the end of the interview process.

New Competencies With the new competencies now in place, of the six, you can obtain information regarding your residents on four of them just from the interview session: Motivation Knowledge (scores) Interpersonal skills (communication) Professionalism

Sleep Deprivation Does your program consider this on interview day? Back to back interviews with no break Driving long distances

Resident Involvement Are they involved with the interviews? Do you get their feedback? Are they involved with social functions only? Do you get their feedback? Are they involved in the rank meeting? How much weight do they carry?

Post-interview Evaluations Get applicant input immediately following interview Survey/questionnaire

Post-interview Letters from Applicants Traditional “thank you” letters What value do you place on them? Valuable How does your program react if you do not receive one? Worthless Do they say what the applicant believes you want to hear?

Rank Meeting How much weight do you give the scores? Does personality move an applicant up or down the list? Does an elective rotation affect the applicants place on the rank list? Does “grapevine” knowledge that the applicant will rank you #1 move them up the list? Do you use scores as the only criteria to select applicants?

***Remember *** Applicants need a personality too! Are they a “fit for your program”?