Utilization of Instagram by Psychiatry Residency Programs in a Virtual Recruitment World

Many psychiatry residency programs use Instagram to provide information about their program. This study assesses the content and engagement on psychiatry residency program Instagram accounts.

A full list of psychiatry programs was gathered from the American Medical Association Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA). FREIDA was used to collect demographic information about a program. Program Instagram accounts were reviewed and assessed for content, and engagement scores were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate regression was used to analyze the information collected from the Instagram accounts.

There are 109 (42.9%) psychiatry residency programs with Instagram accounts; 99 (90.8%) accounts were opened in 2020. Analysis of the content of posts revealed posts with the following themes: 50.5% were departmental, 21.9% were social, 14.9% were other, 10.1% were academic and professional, and 2.6% were educational. Using multivariate regression, a higher total number of followers was correlated with the total number of accounts followed (p ≤ 0.001) and Instagram stories (p = 0.047) (R² = 0.579). Engagement score was correlated with a total number of followers (p ≤ 0.001), program size (p = 0.048), and whether an account was active (p = 0.003) (R² = 0.450).

Results demonstrate that 2020 led to an increase in the number of psychiatry residency program Instagram accounts and engagement with followers. Instagram provides a way to further promote a program, yet there is room for improvement to diversify the content.