Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program Directors' Perspective on the Virtual Interview Process

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
• GME Recruitment

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the adoption of virtual interview (VI) platforms for residency and fellowship recruitment.
• While candidates expressed concerns about VIs hindering program fit evaluation, program directors' (PDs') perspectives remained unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To ascertain the perspectives of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) fellowship Program Directors (PDs) on the virtual recruitment process.
• To analyze PDs' opinions after the first cohort of fellows selected via VIs completed one year of training.

Main Methods:

• An anonymous, 26-question survey was emailed to PCCM PDs participating in the 2020 and 2021 National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) matches.
• The survey was conducted over six weeks using SurveyMonkey, with weekly follow-ups for non-respondents.
• Responses were categorized as favoring or not favoring VIs, and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify associated factors.

Main Results:

• A total of 64 PDs responded (33.68% response rate), with 59 providing usable data.
• A significant majority (61.02%) of PDs favored VIs for future recruitment (P < 0.001).
• PDs favoring VIs were more likely to perceive their current fellows as a good fit for the program (97% vs. 72.73%, P = 0.007).

Conclusions:

• The majority of PCCM fellowship PDs support the continued use of virtual interviews in the recruitment process.
• This finding suggests a general acceptance of virtual platforms for fellowship selection among program leadership.