Selection for family medicine residency training in Canada: How consistently are the same students ranked by different programs?

OBJECTIVE

To examine the consistency of the ranking of Canadian and US medical graduates who applied to Canadian family medicine (FM) residency programs between 2007 and 2013.

DESIGN

Descriptive cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Family medicine residency programs in Canada.

PARTICIPANTS

All 17 Canadian medical schools allowed access to their anonymized program rank-order lists of students applying to FM residency programs submitted to the first iteration of the Canadian Resident Matching Service match from 2007 to 2013.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

The rank position of medical students who applied to more than 1 FM residency program on the rank-order lists submitted by the programs. Anonymized ranking data submitted to the Canadian Resident Matching Service from 2007 to 2013 by all 17 FM residency programs were used. Ranking data of eligible Canadian and US medical graduates were analyzed to assess the within-student and between-student variability in rank score. These covariance parameters were then used to calculate the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for all programs. Program descriptions and selection criteria were also reviewed to identify sites with similar profiles for subset ICC analysis.

RESULTS

Between 2007 and 2013, the consistency of ranking by all programs was fair at best (ICC = 0.34 to 0.39). The consistency of ranking by larger urban-based sites was weak to fair (ICC = 0.23 to 0.36), and the consistency of ranking by sites focusing on training for rural practice was weak to moderate (ICC = 0.16 to 0.55).

CONCLUSION

In most cases, there is a low level of consistency of ranking of students applying for FM training in Canada. This raises concerns regarding fairness, particularly in relation to expectations around equity and distributive justice in selection processes.