Naples Robert, French Judith C, Lipman Jeremy M, Prabhu Ajita S, Aiello Alexandra, Park Sharon K
Department of General Surgery, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio; Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.
Department of General Surgery, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio; Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.
J Surg Educ. 2020 Nov-Dec;77(6):e20-e27. doi: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2020.03.021. Epub 2020 Apr 15.
Personal statements are a requirement of general surgery residency applications. Yet, their role in an applicant's final rank within a program remains unclear. This study explores the language used in personal statements to differentiate applicants in the general surgery residency ranking process.
A textual analysis of general surgery residency applicant personal statements was performed. Using inductive coding and grounded theory, 3 main themes from personal statements were identified: my story, my future, my goals. These themes were utilized to build a dictionary consisting of over 400 descriptive terms in multiple categories. Data was extracted using the Linguistics Inquiry and Word Count program, which can linguistically determine basic characteristics from text. The data was stratified according to final rank and gender for analysis, using correlation and descriptive statistics.
Large, urban, academic general surgery residency program.
One hundred nineteen personal statements during the 2018 to 2019 application cycle were analyzed. All applicants were interviewed and considered for inclusion on our final rank list.
There were 68 (57%) females on the final rank list with no difference in the distribution of gender between those in the top and bottom halves (p = 0.11). Overall, personal statements for the top applicants scored higher in grit than those in the bottom half (median 0.42% vs 0.35%, p = 0.03). Males ranked in the top half had less use of agentic (p = 0.04) and efficient/organized (p = 0.03) words when compared with males ranked in the bottom half. In contrast, females ranked in the top half used more grit words compared to those in the bottom half (median 0.45% vs 0.35%, p = 0.004).
Linguistic differences existed in the personal statements of top- and bottom-ranked applicants to a general surgery residency program. These findings provide an adjunctive tool for differentiating applicants based on this underutilized component of the ranking process.
个人陈述是普通外科住院医师申请的一项要求。然而，它们在项目内申请人最终排名中的作用仍不明确。本研究探讨个人陈述中使用的语言，以在普通外科住院医师排名过程中区分申请人。
对普通外科住院医师申请人的个人陈述进行文本分析。使用归纳编码和扎根理论，从个人陈述中确定了3个主要主题：我的故事、我的未来、我的目标。这些主题被用于构建一个包含400多个多类描述性术语的词典。使用语言查询与字数统计程序提取数据，该程序可以从文本中语言性地确定基本特征。数据根据最终排名和性别进行分层分析，使用相关性和描述性统计。
大型城市学术性普通外科住院医师项目。
分析了2018至2019申请周期内的119份个人陈述。所有申请人均接受了面试，并被考虑列入我们的最终排名名单。
最终排名名单上有68名（57%）女性，排名前半部分和后半部分的性别分布没有差异（p = 0.11）。总体而言，排名靠前的申请人的个人陈述在毅力方面的得分高于排名靠后的申请人（中位数0.42%对0.35%，p = 0.03）。与排名后半部分的男性相比，排名前半部分的男性较少使用能动型（p = 0.04）和高效/有条理（p = 0.03）的词汇。相比之下，排名前半部分的女性比排名后半部分的女性使用更多的毅力相关词汇（中位数0.45%对0.35%，p = 0.004）。
普通外科住院医师项目排名靠前和靠后的申请人的个人陈述存在语言差异。这些发现为基于排名过程中这一未充分利用的部分区分申请人提供了一种辅助工具。
