A User’s Guide to the ALiEM Emergency Medicine Match Advice Web Series

ALiEM EM Match Advice is a web series hosted on the Academic Life in Emergency Medicinewebsite. The intended audience includes senior medical students seeking a residency inemergency medicine (EM) and the faculty members who advise them. Each episode featuresa panel of three EM program directors who discuss a critical step in the residency applicationprocess. This article serves as a user’s guide to the series, including a timeline for viewingeach episode, brief summaries of the panel discussions, and reflection questions for discussionbetween students and their faculty advisors

National Resident Matching Program, Results and Data: 2016 Main Residency Match®

ALiEM EM Match Advice is a web series hosted on the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine website. The intended audience includes senior medical students seeking a residency in emergency medicine (EM) and the faculty members who advise them. Each episode features a panel of three EM program directors who discuss a critical step in the residency application process. This article serves as a user’s guide to the series, including a timeline for viewing each episode, brief summaries of the panel discussions, and reflection questions for discussion between students and their faculty advisors

A Novel Collaboration to Reduce the Travel-Related Cost of Residency Interviewing

Introduction: Interviewing for residency is a complicated and often expensive endeavor. Literature has estimated interview costs of $4,000 to$15,000 per applicant, mostly attributable to travel and lodging. The authors sought to reduce these costs and improve the applicant interview experience by coordinating interview dates between two residency programs in Chicago, Illinois. Methods: Two emergency medicine residency programs scheduled contiguous interview dates for the 2015-2016 interview season. We used a survey to assess applicant experiences interviewing in Chicago and attitudes regarding coordinated scheduling. Data on utilization of coordinated dates were obtained from interview scheduling software. The target group for this intervention consisted of applicants from medical schools outside Illinois who completed interviews at both programs. Results: Of the 158 applicants invited to both programs, 84 (53%) responded to the survey. Scheduling data were available for all applicants. The total estimated cost savings for target applicants coordinating interview dates was $13,950. The majority of target applicants reported that this intervention increased the ease of scheduling (84%), made them less likely to cancel the interview (82%), and saved them money (71%). Conclusion: Coordinated scheduling of interview dates was associated with significant estimated cost savings and was reviewed favorably by applicants across all measures of experience. Expanding use of this practice geographically and across specialties may further reduce the cost of interviewing for applicants. [West J Emerg Med. 2017;18(3)539-543.

A Novel Collaboration to Reduce the Travel-Related Cost of Residency Interviewing

Introduction: Interviewing for residency is a complicated and often expensive endeavor. Literature has estimated interview costs of $4,000 to$15,000 per applicant, mostly attributable to travel and lodging. The authors sought to reduce these costs and improve the applicant interview experience by coordinating interview dates between two residency programs in .Methods: Two emergency medicine residency programs scheduled contiguous interview dates for the 2015-2016 interview season. A survey was used to assess applicant experiences interviewing in and attitudes regarding coordinated scheduling. Data on utilization of coordinated dates were obtained from interview scheduling software. The target group for this intervention consisted of applicants from medical schools outside that completed interviews at both programs.Results: Of the 158 applicants invited to both programs, 84 (53%) responded to the survey. Scheduling data was available for all applicants. The total estimated cost savings for target applicants coordinating interview dates was $18,600. The majority of target applicants reported that this intervention increased the ease of scheduling (84%), made them less likely to cancel the interview (82%) and saved them money (71%).Conclusions: Coordinated scheduling of interview dates was associated with significant estimated cost savings and was reviewed favorably by applicants across all measures of experience. Expanding use of this practice geographically and across specialties may further reduce the cost of interviewing for applicants

A Novel Collaboration to Reduce the Travel-Related Cost of Residency Interviewing

Introduction: Interviewing for residency is a complicated and often expensive endeavor. Literature has estimated interview costs of $4,000 to$15,000 per applicant, mostly attributable to travel and lodging. The authors sought to reduce these costs and improve the applicant interview experience by coordinating interview dates between two residency programs in Chicago, Illinois. Methods: Two emergency medicine residency programs scheduled contiguous interview dates for the 2015-2016 interview season. We used a survey to assess applicant experiences interviewing in Chicago and attitudes regarding coordinated scheduling. Data on utilization of coordinated dates were obtained from interview scheduling software. The target group for this intervention consisted of applicants from medical schools outside Illinois who completed interviews at both programs. Results: Of the 158 applicants invited to both programs, 84 (53%) responded to the survey. Scheduling data were available for all applicants. The total estimated cost savings for target applicants coordinating interview dates was $13,950. The majority of target applicants reported that this intervention increased the ease of scheduling (84%), made them less likely to cancel the interview (82%), and saved them money (71%). Conclusion: Coordinated scheduling of interview dates was associated with significant estimated cost savings and was reviewed favorably by applicants across all measures of experience. Expanding use of this practice geographically and across specialties may further reduce the cost of interviewing for applicants. [West J Emerg Med. 2017;18(3)539-543.

The Standardized Letter of Evaluation Narrative: Differences in Language Use by Gender

Introduction: Prior research demonstrates gender differences in language used in letters of recommendation. The emergency medicine (EM) Standardized Letter of Evaluation (SLOE) format limits word count and provides detailed instructions for writers. The objective of this study is to examine differences in language used to describe men and women applicants within the SLOE narrative.Methods: All applicants to a four-year academic EM residency program within a single application year with a first rotation SLOE available were included in the sample. We used the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program to analyze word frequency within 16 categories. Descriptive statistics, chi-squared, and t-tests were used to describe the sample; gender differences in word frequency were tested for using Mann-Whitney U tests.Results: Of 1117 applicants to the residency program, 822 (82%) first-rotation SLOEs were available; 64% were men, and 36% were women. We did not find a difference in baseline characteristics including age (mean 27 years), top 25 schools (22.5%), Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society rates (13%), and having earned advanced degrees (10%).  The median word count per SLOE narrative for men was 171 and for women was 180 (p = 0.15). After adjusting for letter length, word frequency differences between genders were only present in two categories: social words (women: 23 words/letter; men: 21 words/letter, p = 0.02) and ability words (women: 2 words/letter; men: 1 word/letter, p = 0.04). We were unable to detect a statistical difference between men and women applicants in the remaining categories, including words representing communal traits, agentic traits, standout adjectives, grindstone traits, teaching words, and research words.Conclusion: The small wording differences between genders noted in two categories were statistically significant, but of unclear real-world significance. Future work is planned to evaluate how the SLOE format may contribute to this relative lack of bias compared to other fields and formats

Women’s Night in Emergency Medicine Mentorship Program: A SWOT Analysis

Introduction: Women in emergency medicine (EM) at all career stages report gender-specific obstacles to satisfaction and advancement. Programs that facilitate longitudinal mentoring, professional development, and networking may ameliorate these barriers.Methods: We designed and implemented a program for female residents, faculty, and alumnae from our EM training program to enhance social support, leadership training and professional mentorship opportunities. An anonymous, online survey was sent to participants at the end of the academic year, using a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) format. The survey collected free-text responses designed to evaluate the program.Results: Of 43 invited participants, 32 responded (74.4%). Eight themes emerged from the free-text responses and were grouped by SWOT domain. We identified four themes relating to the “strength” domain: 1) creating a dedicated space; 2) networking community; 3) building solidarity; and 4) providing forward guidance. Responses to the “weaknesses” and “threats” questions were combined due to overlapping codes and resulted in three themes: 5) barriers to participation; 6) the threat of poorly structured events lapsing into negativity; and 7) concerns about external optics. A final theme: 8) expansion of program scope was noted in the “opportunity” domain.Conclusion: This program evaluation of the Women’s Night curriculum demonstrates it was a positive addition to the formal curriculum, providing longitudinal professional development opportunities. Sharing the strengths of the program, along with identified weaknesses, threats, and opportunities for advancement allows other departments to learn from this experience and implement similar models that use existing intellectual and social capital

Women’s Night in Emergency Medicine Mentorship Program: A SWOT Analysis

Introduction: Women in emergency medicine (EM) at all career stages report gender-specific obstacles to satisfaction and advancement. Programs that facilitate longitudinal mentoring, professional development, and networking may ameliorate these barriers.Methods: We designed and implemented a program for female residents, faculty, and alumnae from our EM training program to enhance social support, leadership training and professional mentorship opportunities. An anonymous, online survey was sent to participants at the end of the academic year, using a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) format. The survey collected free-text responses designed to evaluate the program.Results: Of 43 invited participants, 32 responded (74.4%). Eight themes emerged from the free-text responses and were grouped by SWOT domain. We identified four themes relating to the “strength” domain: 1) creating a dedicated space; 2) networking community; 3) building solidarity; and 4) providing forward guidance. Responses to the “weaknesses” and “threats” questions were combined due to overlapping codes and resulted in three themes: 5) barriers to participation; 6) the threat of poorly structured events lapsing into negativity; and 7) concerns about external optics. A final theme: 8) expansion of program scope was noted in the “opportunity” domain.Conclusion: This program evaluation of the Women’s Night curriculum demonstrates it was a positive addition to the formal curriculum, providing longitudinal professional development opportunities. Sharing the strengths of the program, along with identified weaknesses, threats, and opportunities for advancement allows other departments to learn from this experience and implement similar models that use existing intellectual and social capital