Dear Good Colleagues,
Good cheer. Lots going on!
REGIONAL MEETINGS
We had two successful regional meetings this past month – Los Angeles (now called the Western Region) and Chicago (now the Great Lakes region). There was spirited conversation, discussion of innovations, and sharing of common challenges. The Chicago gang even organized a poster session. There is a high degree of commitment to continue these gatherings. If you think you’d like to serve as a hub for a regional meeting, let me know.
APPLICATIONS 2017
ERAS data was recently released about med-peds applicant numbers as of October 15th. There are 405 US & Canadian applicants in the system, with 386 International medical graduates. This is quite a drop from the prior year – -19% and -23% respectively. This is quite different from our colleagues in internal medicine (-4.8% US and +2.5% for IMG’s) pediatrics ( -0.4% US and -6.4% for IMG’s), and Family Medicine (+13.3% US and -1.5% IMG’s). The increase in applications from US Graduates in Family Medicine vs the decline is Medicine-Pediatrics is particularly interesting. Is this a blip? The beginning of a new trend? I invite further dialogue from one and all.
INTERVIEW SEASON & POST-INTERVIEW COMMUNICATION
As we enter into the interview season, I would like to make a proposal about post-interview communication. I realize that stakes are high all around – for applicants, programs, and institutions alike. And yet, in the power equation between applicant and PD, we are in the driver’s seat. We’ve been down this road before. For our applicants, it’s their first trip.
APDIM came out with a policy a few years ago. They mention discouraging post-interview communication, second looks, and thank you notes. Here is the link http://www.im.org/p/cm/ld/fid=802. Since opinions vary greatly about what is appropriate, I’m not sure crafting our own MPPDA guidelines is a useful exercise for us.
Here is the a proposed standard for us: If you could share your communication with your colleagues in MPPDA, would it feel okay? If not, then probably you shouldn’t send the email or punch in the phone number. We kicked this idea around at our Northeast meeting and it seemed to make sense.
I studied this last year. 10% of applicants felt that at least program was unprofessional and 1% felt that two programs were. This is a minority, for sure, but it’s still part of the landscape.
My own personal policy is this: I have a slide where I discuss post-interview communication. I am happy to answer any question that residents have and also encourage communication with anyone else at Yale (this is not what the APDIM recommendation states). I will not send any individual recruitment type emails to anyone after the interview. I discourage second looks and thank you notes.
I have adopted a policy that I call HIP: Honesty, Integrity, and Professionalism. HIP, get it? I am explicit that I will not share where applicants are on my rank list, mindful of the over-interpretations that throw-away comments can have like, “you would be a good fit here.”
If we all did adopted an explicit policy of honesty, integrity, and professionalism – and shared this with our applicants – I think we would be held as a model for other programs. Also, I think our applicants would feel affirmed by our transparency and honor. I welcome dialogue on this.
SCHOLARSHIP
We congratulate Ben Kinnear along with Jennifer O’Toole who authored, “Critical Deficiency Ratings in Milestone Assessment: A Review and Case Study,” in Academic Medicine. Here is the link: http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Abstract/publishahead/Critical_Deficiency_Ratings_in_Milestone.98405.aspx
Here is a fascinating article with a med-peds focus from JGME – “Rounds Today: A Qualitative Study of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Resident Perceptions.” Bradley Monash, med-peds from UCSF, is a co-author. Here is the link: http://www.jgme.org/doi/abs/10.4300/JGME-D-15-00106.1
Let me know if you’ve published something…. We’d love to hear to about it.
Good luck with interviews…
Best,
Ben
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