Spatz Christin, Olaf Mark, Ellison Halle
Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and MD Career Advising, Associate Professor of Medicine, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.
Regional Associate Dean Central Campus, Vice Chair of Education Emergency Medicine, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.
J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2024 May 7;11:23821205241253230. doi: 10.1177/23821205241253230. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec.
The residency application process has become increasingly complex for medical students and advisors to navigate. Program signaling was piloted to improve applicants' abilities to obtain interview offers at programs they were strongly interested in. The initial positive results led to expansion of signaling to additional specialties over the next two application cycles. Despite the benefits of program signaling, the variation in signaling practices among specialties has presented challenges for both advisors and students when determining how to best allocate signals. The aim of this study is to identify students' perceptions of the signaling process, how this may impact outcomes, and to guide future educational programming.
This is an exploratory original survey study of students in a US allopathic medical school applying in ERAS for the 2023 residency cycle. The survey was developed to determine students' understanding of how programs would use signals in the application process and assess strategies students used to allocate signals. We compared program signals to student interview offers and match outcomes using descriptive statistics.
57 of 96 eligible students completed the survey. 51% signaled a range of programs based on their perceived competitiveness for the program while 40% signaled programs of interest regardless of perceived competitiveness. 53% of students thought sending a signal would increase their chance of an interview, while 42% were unsure how the signal would be used by residency programs. Students received interviews at 49% of the programs signaled, which increased to 56.5% when specialties offering more than 7 signals were excluded. 35% of students matched at a signaled program.
Students' perceptions and strategies related to the signaling process are varied and may impact interview offers. Advisors should monitor and review internal institutional trends to help inform future educational programming to optimize signal allocation for their students.
住院医师申请流程对于医学生和指导教师来说愈发复杂，难以应对。开展项目信号试点，以提高申请者获得心仪项目面试邀请的能力。最初的积极成果促使在接下来的两个申请周期将信号扩展到更多专业。尽管项目信号有诸多益处，但各专业信号发放做法的差异给指导教师和学生在确定如何最佳分配信号时带来了挑战。本研究旨在了解学生对信号发放过程的看法、这可能如何影响结果，并为未来的教育规划提供指导。
这是一项针对美国一所全科医学院申请2023年住院医师培训周期的学生进行的探索性原创调查研究。该调查旨在确定学生对项目在申请过程中如何使用信号的理解，并评估学生用于分配信号的策略。我们使用描述性统计方法将项目信号与学生的面试邀请和匹配结果进行比较。
96名符合条件的学生中有57名完成了调查。51%的学生根据他们对项目竞争力的认知向一系列项目发送了信号，而40%的学生向感兴趣的项目发送信号，无论其认知的竞争力如何。53%的学生认为发送信号会增加获得面试的机会，而42%的学生不确定住院医师项目会如何使用该信号。学生在49%发送信号的项目中获得了面试机会，排除提供超过7个信号的专业后，这一比例增至56.5%。35%的学生在发送信号的项目中成功匹配。
学生对信号发放过程的看法和策略各不相同，可能会影响面试邀请。指导教师应监测和审查校内机构趋势，以帮助为未来的教育规划提供信息，从而为学生优化信号分配。
