Posters

Relative importance of the components of the residency application: perspectives from faculty and medical students

Poster Details

First Author: A.Eneh CANADA

Co Author(s):    S. Baxter              

Abstract Details

Purpose:

The primary goal of this project was to investigate Canadian ophthalmology residency program directors' and department heads' perceptions about the relative importance of the various components of the Canadian Residency Matching Service (CaRMS) application package. Secondary goals were to 1) investigate the perceptions of all program directors and department heads at Queen's University's residency programs 2) compare faculty's perceptions with the perceptions of medical students at Queen's University.

Setting:

Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Methods:

A validated survey was administered to faculty and students. Qualitative questions were included in the faculty survey. Quantitative data were analyzed with non-parametric tests. Qualitative data were organized according to primary themes.

Results:

Faculty and students assigned the highest scores to the following components in descending order: interview performance, electives, reference letters, and personal letter. For all four components, student scores were significantly higher than faculty scores. First and fourth year medical students scores differed significantly in eight areas including research experience and volunteer experience. In both these components, there were statistical differences between fourth year student scores and faculty scores, while the first year class had scores that were comparable to faculty scores. Queen's University faculty and Ophthalmology faculty did not differ significantly. Faculty scores also did not differ significantly based on age, or gender.

Conclusions:

Faculty and students agreed on the most important components of the application, but significant differences were found in their perceptions of the relative importance of other components. FINANCIAL INTEREST: NONE