Family medicine
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The COVID-19 pandemic led to the institution of virtual interviewing for nearly all family medicine residency programs in 2020 and 2021. This paradigm shift challenged the perspectives of family medicine program directors across the United States, in part because of the financial impact on the operations of many residency programs. We sought to investigate program directors' opinions on the 2020-2021 interview season, as well whether future interview season planning would be influenced by the financial outcomes of this season. ⋯ While family medicine residency program directors who recouped interview expenses during fully-virtual recruiting seasons are more likely to support ongoing, fully-virtual models, financial incentivization did not overall impact support for virtual interviewing among program directors with statistical significance.
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The first all-virtual residency application cycle took place in 2021. Virtual programming can reduce cost, time, and travel burden; these may be especially beneficial to applicants with fewer resources and those from underrepresented backgrounds (URM). Little is known about how applicants evaluate key ranking factors, especially in a virtual format. This study aimed to assess how applicants evaluated programs in the virtual cycle. ⋯ This study provides information about how applicants evaluated the factors they deemed most important in assessing and ranking programs, which can help residency programs improve their recruitment efforts.
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This study aimed to assess the impact of interviewing format changes on the family medicine (FM) residency interviewing process. Specifically, we compare applicant cost and time expenditures in traditional in-person, virtual-only, and hybrid interview years. We also report student perceptions of the virtual-only and hybrid interview processes. ⋯ Virtual interviewing works well for overall cost and time, but other aspects such as perceived fit with programs and equity need to be considered before residency programs adopt fully virtual or hybrid interviewing in future years.
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A significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on family medicine residency recruitment has been a requested transition to virtual interviewing by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the academic family medicine community. This has led to creative and adaptive approaches to virtual interviewing with little previous knowledge, experience, or processes. This work describes the impact of transitioning to virtual recruitment on applicants' reported experiences and factors influencing decision-making with family medicine at a large research university. ⋯ The transition to virtual recruitment has been well received by candidates, as indicated by the high positive ratings of the cohorts. The transition has not resulted in a negative impact on the recruitment experience or the ability to meet with resident leadership.