Claiborne Jeffrey R, Crantford J Clayton, Swett Katrina R, David Lisa R
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1075, USA.
Ann Plast Surg. 2013 Jun;70(6):698-703. doi: 10.1097/SAP.0b013e31828587d3.
Plastic surgery continues to be a very competitive program to match into out of medical school. To analyze the match process, all applicants to our plastic surgery residency program in 2012 were surveyed. Our results showed that with matching into plastic surgery as the primary outcome measure, those who matched applied to more plastic surgery programs, received and accepted more interview invitations, were younger, were less likely to be foreign medical graduates, reported higher costs, had higher Step 1 and Step 2 scores, were more likely to be an Alpha Omega Alpha member, and conducted more research. In addition to looking at variables that affected the success of the match, other questions regarding the match process were posed. Most interestingly, 10% of applicants still reported violations of the match communication guidelines. Furthermore, the mean cost of interviewing for the plastic surgery match was $6073.In summary, applicants with diversified strengths had the best chance of matching. On the basis of the results of this study, applicants should attend a large number of interviews to optimize their match success. With medical student debt a growing problem, programs need to find ways to control interview costs. Residency program compliance with match communication guidelines has improved, but compliance should be universal. With these data, applicants can be better prepared for the match to optimize their success and programs can work to improve the match process.
整形外科仍然是医学院毕业后竞争非常激烈的一个专业。为了分析匹配过程，我们对2012年申请我们整形外科住院医师培训项目的所有申请人进行了调查。我们的结果显示，以成功匹配到整形外科为主要衡量指标，成功匹配的人申请了更多的整形外科项目，收到并接受了更多的面试邀请，年龄更小，不太可能是外国医学毕业生，报告的花费更高，第一步和第二步考试成绩更高，更有可能是美国医学优等生协会成员，并且开展了更多的研究。除了研究影响匹配成功的变量外，还提出了其他有关匹配过程的问题。最有趣的是，10%的申请人仍报告存在违反匹配沟通指南的情况。此外，整形外科匹配面试的平均花费为6073美元。总之，具备多种优势的申请人匹配成功的机会最大。根据这项研究的结果，申请人应该参加大量面试以优化匹配成功率。随着医学生债务问题日益严重，各项目需要找到控制面试成本的方法。住院医师培训项目对匹配沟通指南的遵守情况有所改善，但应做到普遍遵守。有了这些数据，申请人可以为匹配做好更充分的准备以优化成功率，各项目也可以努力改进匹配过程。
