Garmel Gus M, Grover Casey A, Quinn Antonia, Lotfipour Shahram, Langdorf Mark I, Cheaito Mohamad Ali, Epter Michael, Kazzi Amin
Stanford Kaiser Emergency Medicine Residency Program, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California; The Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Santa Clara, California.
Division of Emergency Medicine, Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Monterey, California.
J Emerg Med. 2019 Sep;57(3):405-410. doi: 10.1016/j.jemermed.2019.04.020. Epub 2019 Jul 30.
Letters of recommendation (LORs) are a central element of an applicant's portfolio for the National Resident Matching Program (known as the "Match"). This is especially true when applying to competitive specialties like emergency medicine (EM). LORs convey an applicant's potential for success, and also highlight an applicant's qualities that cannot always be recognized from a curriculum vitae, test scores, or grades. Traditional LORs, also called narrative LORs, are written in prose and are therefore highly subjective. This led to the establishment of a task force by the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors in 1995 to develop a standardized LOR. Revisions of this form are now referred to as a standardized letter of evaluation. These evaluations in this format have proven to increase inter-rater reliability, decrease interpretation time, and standardize the process used by EM faculty to prepare evaluations for EM applicants. In this article, we will discuss LORs; address applicants' concerns, including from whom to request LORs (EM faculty vs. non-EM faculty vs. non-clinical faculty), number of LORs an applicant should include in his or her application materials, the preferred manner of requesting and the timing in which to ask for an LOR, as well as the philosophy behind waiving the right to see the letter.
推荐信（LORs）是申请人参加全国住院医师匹配计划（即“匹配计划”）资料的核心组成部分。在申请急诊医学（EM）等竞争激烈的专业时尤其如此。推荐信传达了申请人成功的潜力，还突出了申请人简历、考试成绩或成绩中不一定能体现的品质。传统的推荐信，也称为叙述性推荐信，是用散文形式撰写的，因此主观性很强。这促使急诊医学住院医师主任委员会在1995年成立了一个特别工作组，以制定一份标准化的推荐信。这种表格的修订版现在被称为标准化评估信。这种格式的评估已被证明可以提高评分者之间的可靠性，减少解读时间，并规范急诊医学教员为急诊医学申请人准备评估的流程。在本文中，我们将讨论推荐信；解决申请人的担忧，包括向谁索要推荐信（急诊医学教员与非急诊医学教员与非临床教员）、申请人应在申请材料中包含的推荐信数量、索要推荐信的首选方式和时间，以及放弃查看推荐信权利背后的理念。
