AAMC Interview Guidance for the 2022-2023 Residency Cycle, Last Updates

Source: aamc.org website

AAMC Interview Guidance for the 2022-2023 Residency Cycle, Last Updates

The following guidance was developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in response to inquiries about residency interviews for the 2022-23 residency selection cycle. The recommendations outlined below reflect the collective sense of how to proceed, and the AAMC urges each medical school, sponsoring institution, specialty society, and residency program to carefully consider them and commit to working together to create an equitable, transparent, and successful residency selection cycle for all stakeholders.

Because students rely on predictable, common practices across schools and programs as they prepare to transition to residency, this guidance will reduce unnecessary confusion, stress, and inequity among students while promoting a more successful residency selection process for all.

This guidance is intended to add to, but not supersede, the independent judgment of a medical school, sponsoring institution, or residency program. The AAMC is proposing these recommendations to help specialty and training programs consider their interviewing and recruiting options and to make evidenced-based decisions.

Introduction

In the short term, the AAMC recommends continuing the virtual interview experiment that was necessary for the last two cycles. There are clear cost and time savings to applicants and programs. High-level data (overall Match rates, general satisfaction measures, etc.) suggest the process has been generally successful. And most importantly, there is an opportunity to study the process and make a more informed decision for the longer term. The AAMC is also considering incremental process improvements that could be achieved by more programs sharing information about their training program, application requirements, and deadlines. This may minimize learner stress and anxiety, as well as improve perceptions of fairness and create positive reactions about the training program, specialty, and/or sponsoring institution.

Recommendation #1: Programs should conduct virtual interviews for all applicants (including local applicants) for the 2022-23 cycle.

Virtual interviews improve equity by eliminating a substantial portion of the cost of application and by opening opportunities for applicants who may have otherwise declined an interview invitation due to financial constraints. Furthermore, the relative ease of scheduling virtual interviews and reducing time away from clinical rotations improves their educational experience and may reduce applicant stress and anxiety. Virtual interviewing also reduces expenses and resource constraints for programs. Reduced time commitment from faculty may have the added benefit of more faculty being willing to participate in the interviewing process. Given the number of interviews conducted each cycle, virtual interviewing is also environmentally responsible.

Recommendation #2: Hybrid interviewing within the same program is strongly discouraged for the 2022-23 cycle.

While the recommendation is that all programs should conduct interviews in a virtual-only format, if in-person interviews are considered, it is strongly recommended that organizations use a single interview format (i.e., all virtual or all in-person) during the same stage of the selection process. Research comparing the two formats shows that, on average, interviewee performance ratings are lower for virtual than in-person interviews.

Another potential risk for applicants who choose a virtual format over in-person, if both are offered, is that they may be perceived by program directors as being less interested in the program. Using a hybrid approach could disadvantage applicants who interview virtually and could further exacerbate inequities if applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds interview virtually at a higher rate due to financial constraints.

Recommendation #3: Programs should share their interviewing plans with applicants clearly and early, preferably when application requirements are released.

Applicants have more positive reactions to selection systems and organizations when they are transparent. Providing information early in the cycle will reduce unnecessary stress for applicants and help them better prepare for interviews. The AAMC will work with specialty societies to share residency application information with medical schools and learners. Individual programs may enter their decision about interview format along with other application requirements in the Electronic Residency Application Service® Account Maintenance System.

Recommendation #4: Programs should prepare for the interview cycle by reviewing resources on anti-bias practices, best practices in creating and implementing virtual interviews, and creating tools for recruiting in a virtual context.

Continuous improvement in virtual interviewing and creating an equitable recruitment process for learners requires planning. Virtual interviewing can amplify biases (e.g., technology inequities, cognitive load, cues in an interviewee’s living space) that can be mitigated with the appropriate strategies and advanced planning. Staff and faculty training should be implemented to mitigate potential bias and variability in approaches.

According to the 2021 National Resident Matching Program Applicant and Program Director Research Brief, more than 50% of applicants in the 2020-21 cycle reported that learning about a program’s culture was moderately or very difficult from web-based materials. Developing virtual resources (e.g., virtual open houses, presentations about the city, etc.) for applicants could improve their perception of prospective training programs.

Recommendation #5: Organizations should commit to collaborative research to explore key aspects and outcomes of in-person and virtual interviews.

In collaboration with the Undergraduate Medical Education-Graduate Medical Education (UME-GME) communities, the AAMC plans to develop a multiorganization research collaboration. The association will work with other organizations to create a research program that includes these key topics and example research questions:

• Fairness (e.g., mean ratings by group, perceptions of fairness).
• Psychometrics (e.g., rater reliability, mean and standard deviation of ratings).
• Validity (e.g., correlations with other selection data and trainee performance and satisfaction data).
• Applicant reactions (e.g., ease of use, ability to demonstrate “who you are”).
• Program reactions (e.g., value added).
• Cost and resources (e.g., dollars saved, time saved, environmental impact).
• Learner and program resources (e.g., resources used, usefulness of resources).
• Implications for recruitment (e.g., applicant yield).

Conclusion

A rigorous research agenda will require well-defined metrics and mechanisms to collect and share data; therefore, specialties, institutions, and programs are encouraged to collaborate with appropriate organizations to design and conduct research to evaluate the interviewing process.

Without further study and an evaluation process, the community is left with perspectives based on innuendo, anecdotal experiences, and collective biases toward one method or the other. Both methods require more study and evidence upon which long-term decisions can be made for the ultimate benefit of both learners and program directors. The AAMC, in partnership with the following organizations and the UME-GME community, are prepared to lead a research agenda that would encourage continuous process improvement to help support future decision making in this realm.

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