Romano Robert, Mukherjee Debraj, Michael L Madison, Huang Judy, Snyder M Harrison, Reddy Vamsi P, Guzman Katherine, Lane Pamela, Johnson Jeremiah N, Selden Nathan R, Wolfe Stacey Q
1Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
2Department of Neurosurgery, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee.
J Neurosurg. 2022 Jan 21;137(3):877-885. doi: 10.3171/2021.11.JNS211851. Print 2022 Sep 1.
In this article, the authors describe the impact of the COVID-19 virtual match cycle and discuss approaches to optimize future cycles through applicant and neurosurgical education leadership insights.
Anonymous surveys of neurosurgery program leaders (program directors and program chairs), program administrators (PAs), and 2020-2021 neurosurgery residency match applicants were distributed by the SNS, in conjunction with the Association of Resident Administrators in Neurological Surgery and AANS Young Neurosurgeons Committee.
Responses were received from 77 (67.0%) of 115 PAs, 119 (51.7%) of 230 program leaders, and 124 (44.3%) of 280 applicants representing geographically diverse regions. During the virtual application cycle relative to the previous year, programs received more Electronic Residency Application Service applications (mean 314.8 vs 285.3, p < 0.0001) and conducted more applicant interviews (mean 45.2 vs 39.9, p = 0.0003). More than 50% of applicants applied to > 80 programs; 60.3% received ≤ 20 interview invitations, and 9% received > 40 invitations. Overall, 65% of applicants completed ≤ 20 interviews, whereas 34.7% completed > 20 interviews. Program leaders described one 4-week home subinternship (93.3%) and two 4-week external subinternships (68.9%) as optimal neurosurgical exposure; 62.8% of program leaders found the standardized letter of recommendation template to be somewhat (47.5%) or significantly (15.3%) helpful. Applicants, PAs, and program leaders all strongly preferred a hybrid model of in-person and virtual interview options for future application cycles over all in-person or all virtual options. Ninety-three percent of applicants reported matching within their top 10-ranked programs, and 52.9% of programs matched residents within the same decile ranking as in previous years.
Optimizing a national strategy for the neurosurgery application process that prioritizes equity and reduces costs, while ensuring adequate exposure for applicants to gain educational opportunities and evaluate programs, is critical to maintain a successful training system.
在本文中，作者描述了COVID-19虚拟招录周期的影响，并通过申请人和神经外科教育领导层的见解讨论优化未来周期的方法。
神经外科项目负责人（项目主任和项目主席）、项目管理人员（PA）以及2020 - 2021年神经外科住院医师招录申请人的匿名调查问卷由神经外科医师协会（SNS）联合神经外科住院医师管理人员协会和美国神经外科医师协会（AANS）青年神经外科医师委员会发放。
收到了来自115名PA中的77名（67.0%）、230名项目负责人中的119名（51.7%）以及280名申请人中的124名（44.3%）的回复，这些回复代表了不同地理区域。与上一年相比，在虚拟申请周期中，各项目收到了更多的电子住院医师申请服务（ERAS）申请（平均314.8份对285.3份，p < 0.0001），并进行了更多的申请人面试（平均45.2次对39.9次，p = 0.0003）。超过50%的申请人申请了80多个项目；60.3%的申请人收到了≤20次面试邀请，9%的申请人收到了>40次邀请。总体而言，65%的申请人完成了≤20次面试，而34.7%的申请人完成了>20次面试。项目负责人将一次为期4周的家庭实习（93.3%）和两次为期4周的外部实习（68.9%）描述为最佳的神经外科实习经历；62.8%的项目负责人认为标准化推荐信模板有一定帮助（47.5%）或非常有帮助（15.
