1Department of Neurological Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee.
2Division of Neurosurgery, University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, Vermont.
J Neurosurg. 2020 Jul 17;134(6):1974-1982. doi: 10.3171/2020.4.JNS2046. Print 2021 Jun 1.
Residency interviews are integral to the recruitment process yet imperfect. Through surveys of neurosurgery residency applicants, the authors describe interview content and the perceived utility and stress of topics from the applicant's perspective.
All 2018-2019 neurosurgery resident applicants applying to three particular programs were surveyed. Across 10 interview topics, survey questions assessed topic frequency and the applicant's opinion of the utility and stress of each topic (Likert scale 1-5). Analyses included descriptive statistics, Spearman's rank correlation, and logistic regression.
One hundred thirty-three of 265 surveyed US residency applicants (50%) responded. Extracurricular activities, research, future career, non-medicine interests, and small talk were discussed in all interviews. The least frequent topics included neurosurgical knowledge assessment (79%) and manual dexterity tests (45%). The most useful topics according to respondents were future career objectives (4.78 ± 0.49) and prior research (4.76 ± 0.50); the least useful were neurosurgical knowledge assessment (2.67 ± 1.09) and manual dexterity tests (2.95 ± 1.05). The most stressful topics were neurosurgical knowledge assessment (3.66 ± 1.23) and ethical/behavioral scenarios (2.94 ± 1.28). The utility and stress of manual dexterity tests and neurosurgical knowledge assessments were inversely correlated (r = -0.40, p < 0.01; r = -0.36, p < 0.01), whereas no such correlation existed for ethical/behavioral questions (r = -0.12, p = 0.18), indicating that ethical/behavioral questions may have been stressful but were potentially useful topics. Respondents who attended ≥ 15 interviews were more likely to be asked about the three most stressful topics (each p < 0.05). Respondents with children were less likely to be asked about ethical/behavioral scenarios (OR 0.13, 95% CI 0.03-0.52, p < 0.01).
Applicants found several of the most frequently discussed topics to be less useful, indicating a potential disconnect between applicant opinion and the faculty's preferred questions. Ethical/behavioral scenarios were rated as stressful but still useful, representing a potentially worthwhile type of question. These data provide several avenues for potential standardization and improvement of the interview process.
住院医师面试是招聘过程中不可或缺的一部分，但并不完美。通过对神经外科住院医师申请人的调查，作者从申请人的角度描述了面试内容以及他们认为每个主题的实用性和压力。
对申请三个特定项目的 2018-2019 年神经外科住院医师申请人进行了调查。在 10 个面试主题中，调查问卷评估了主题频率以及申请人对每个主题的实用性和压力的看法（李克特量表 1-5）。分析包括描述性统计、Spearman 秩相关和逻辑回归。
在接受调查的 265 名美国住院医师申请人中，有 133 名（50%）做出了回应。在所有面试中，都讨论了课外活动、研究、未来职业、非医学兴趣和闲聊。讨论最少的话题包括神经外科知识评估（79%）和手动灵巧测试（45%）。根据受访者的回答，最有用的话题是未来职业目标（4.78±0.49）和以前的研究（4.76±0.50）；最没用的是神经外科知识评估（2.67±1.09）和手动灵巧测试（2.95±1.05）。最有压力的话题是神经外科知识评估（3.66±1.23）和伦理/行为情景（2.94±1.28）。手动灵巧测试和神经外科知识评估的实用性和压力呈负相关（r=-0.40，p<0.01；r=-0.36，p<0.01），而伦理/行为问题则没有相关性（r=-0.12，p=0.18），这表明伦理/行为问题可能有压力，但可能是有用的话题。参加≥15 次面试的受访者更有可能被问到三个最具压力的话题（均 p<0.05）。有孩子的受访者不太可能被问到伦理/行为情景（OR 0.13，95%CI 0.03-0.52，p<0.01）。
申请人发现一些最常讨论的话题不太有用，这表明申请人的意见与教师的首选问题之间可能存在脱节。伦理/行为情景被认为是有压力的，但仍然是有用的，代表了一种潜在有价值的问题类型。这些数据为面试过程的潜在标准化和改进提供了几个途径。
