TOTB-10: WHAT IS âFITâ-NESS: DEVELOPMENT OF CORE COMPETENCY BASED INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES FOR GENERAL SURGERY RESIDENCY APPLICANTS
Lillian M Erdahl, MD, Julia Shelton, MD, MPH; University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics
What problem in education is addressed by this work?:Residency interviews are a high stakes process for both applicant and institution however the process by which appropriate residents are selected is often sub-optimal. The ACGME developed the core competencies in 1999; along with the associated milestones, these competencies aid in the assessment of resident progression toward proficiency in patient care and procedural skills, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, professionalism, and systems-based practice. We propose that developing an interview schema, utilizing human resources knowledge and skills common among many industries, designed to measure âfitâ-ness (an applicantâs attributes along these core competencies) should aid in the identification of successful residents.
Describe the intervention:
Using a Delphian process, 15 surgical attendings met to identify key attributes of successful surgical residents and assigned those characteristics to one of six core competencies thus defining job âfitâ. Similarly, this process was repeated to define our organizational priorities thus defining institutional âfitâ. Setting a common frame of reference by developing standardized interview questions as well as graded examples of answers along a Likert-type scale (poor â marginal â best) enabled the application of our definition of âfitâ-ness to the interview and selection process.
Describe how this intervention could be applied at other institutions. Please specifically comment on identified barriers that could exist and how they could be overcome:
The faculty-led Delphian process appropriately identifies key skills, attributes, and knowledge to be sought during residency interviews; this process can be recreated by any surgical training program and crafted for institution-specific âfitâ-ness. Participation by current residents could further enhance accurate development of an interview assessment for both job and organizational âfitâ-ness.