Novel Strategies to Improve Resident Selection by Improving Cultural Fit: AOA Critical Issues

Residency selection is a perennial multifactorial process that differs considerably from the recruitment processes that other professional occupations enjoy. The 2016 meeting of the American Orthopaedic Association's Council of Orthopaedic Residency Directors highlighted a series of symposia that sought to present a novel manner of resident selection. Specifically, the presenters for each symposium were asked to do the following: present some general recruitment best practices in industries outside of medicine, present how branding of a program may translate into a better interview season, investigate evidence that the applicant pool to orthopaedic surgery may have changed and that residency program brands may have to reflect this, and assess our current evaluation techniques for talent identification and resident selection with respect to a specific department's appearance or brand. The meeting concluded with an understanding of the level to which programs can successfully create or adopt a brand and how this may go a long way in focusing the entire match process and allow emphasis to be placed on applicants who possess desired traits. The goal for this meeting was that attendees would leave with tangible practices and techniques that could be adopted at their home institutions.