Commentary and Opinions: The Utilization of Social Media by Medical Residency Programs During COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

As a result of COVID-19 pandemic, medical training has been greatly impacted globally. In Canada, out-of-province visiting clinical electives were cancelled. In addition, the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) interviews were transitioned to being virtual since 2020. As residency programs are exploring new ways to overcome the challenges of elective cancellation, there has been a surge of residency program social media accounts on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Social media serves as a platform for residency programs to promote themselves in addition to posting interactive educational materials. Moreover, social media residency accounts provide a platform for medical students to learn about the programs and network virtually with fellow applicants, residents, program directors, and faculty members. Overall, social media is becoming a popular and valuable tool for residency programs to connect with the applicants during COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Among the different social media platforms, Instagram seems to be more appealing to both residency programs and the graduating medical students. We report our observations regarding selected Canadian residency program Instagram accounts. To maximize the success of using social media, it is important for the residency programs to consider the attitudes of applicants towards the residency social media accounts. Future studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of the Canadian residency program social media accounts for the final year students applying for these programs.

Faculty Members’ Perspective on Virtual Interviews for Medical Residency Matching during the COVID-19 Crisis: A National Survey

During the COVID-19 pandemic, conducting face-to-face medical residency interviews was challenging due to infection prevention precautions, social distancing, and travel restrictions. Virtual interviews were implemented by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS) as an alternative process for residency matching while striving to maintain the same quality standards. This national survey was conducted to assess the satisfaction and perceptions of faculty members’ virtual interview performance in the assessment for the medical training residency programs. Among the participating 173 faculty members, 34.1% did not have previous experience with video-conferencing. The Zoom application was the most commonly used platform (65.9%). Most (89.6%) of the faculty perceived virtual interviews as “adequate” platforms on which the candidates could express themselves, while almost half of the faculty (53.8%) agreed that virtual interviews allowed them to accurately reach an impression about the candidates. Overall, 73.4% of faculty felt comfortable ranking the virtually interviewed candidates. We conclude that the acceptance of participating faculty members in the first Saudi medical residency training matching cycle virtual interviewing event was well-perceived. This study provides evidence for future application and research of virtual interviews in residency candidates’ assessment, especially after the pandemic crisis resolves.

Faculty Members’ Perspective on Virtual Interviews for Medical Residency Matching during the COVID-19 Crisis: A National Survey

During the COVID-19 pandemic, conducting face-to-face medical residency interviews was challenging due to infection prevention precautions, social distancing and travel restrictions. Virtual interviews were implemented by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS) as an alternative process for residency matching while striving to maintain the same quality standards. This national survey was conducted to assess the satisfaction and perceptions of faculty members’ virtual interviews performance in the assessment for the medical training residency programs. Among the participating 173 faculty members (34.1%) did not have previous experience with video-conferencing. Zoom application was the most commonly used platform (65.9%). Most (89.6%) of the faculty perceived virtual interviews as “adequate” for the candidates to express themselves, while almost half of the faculty (53.8%) agreed that virtual interviews allowed them to accurately reach an impression about the candidates. Overall, 73.4% of faculty felt comfortable ranking the virtually interviewed candidates. We conclude that the acceptance of participating faculty members in the first Saudi medical residency training matching cycle virtual interviewing event was well perceived. This study provides evidence for future application and research of virtual interviews in residency candidates' assessment, especially after the pandemic crisis resolves.

Perception of Medical Professionalism among Medical Residents in Spain

Background: Medical professionalism, defined as commitment to the primacy of patient welfare, is the basis for doctor–patient–society relationships, but previous research with medical students has shown that professionalism and social commitment to medicine may be waning. To determine if this trend also appears in recently qualified practicing doctors, we surveyed 90 newly graduated doctors currently working as medical residents in two university hospitals in Murcia, Spain. A previously validated questionnaire that studies the perception of six categories (responsibility, altruism, service, excellence, honesty and integrity, and respect) defining medical professionalism was used. Results: A good perception of professionalism was found among medical residents, with more than 70% positive responses in all these six categories. There is an increasing trend in the number of negative responses as the residency goes on. Altruism was the category with the greatest percentage of negative answers (22.3%) and Respect was the category with the lowest percentage (12.9%). Conclusions: The results show a good professionalism perception in medical residents, but also a slight decline in positive answers that began during medical school. A significant trend was found when including both students and residents. Although there were some differences between students and residents, these were not statistically significant. Educational interventions are needed both at the level of medical school and postgraduate medical residency.

Residência Pedagógica espelhada na Residência Médica: formação de professores sob nova perspectiva?

INTRODUÇÃO: O programa de Residência Pedagógica é um modelo de formação profissional para cursos de licenciatura, sendo um programa integrado a Política Nacional de Formação de Professores, cujo intuito está no aperfeiçoamento prático por meio da inserção do acadêmico no ambiente escolar. Este programa surgiu com inspiração na Residência Médica, sendo esta uma modalidade de ensino de pós-graduação destinada a médicos já graduados, como forma de especialização clínica. OBJETIVO: Analisar as aproximações e distanciamentos entre o programa na área da Educação Física em relação ao programa da área médica a partir da percepção de coordenadores das áreas de uma universidade pública do Paraná. MÉTODOS: A pesquisa é caracterizada como de abordagem qualitativa, com foco no estudo de caso. Foram entrevistados 4 coordenadores de curso e de programa de residência vinculados aos cursos de Medicina e Educação Física. A análise dos dados foi baseada no princípio de categorização temática com foco na análise de conteúdo. RESULTADOS: Os resultados mostram que há diferenças significativas entre as propostas, tendo a residência médica uma formação em nível de pós-graduação enquanto a residência pedagógica uma formação inicial, isso reflete as definições estruturais e conceituais sobre a forma de inserção de tais modelos formativos no ambiente de atuação profissional. CONCLUSÃO: Conclui-se que o propósito de formação em licenciatura com base em modelos de residência profissional possibilitam novas experiências e caminhos, mas que ainda estão distantes do modelo ofertado na área médica.ABSTRACT. Mirrored Pedagogycal Residence in the Medical Residence: teacher training about new perspective?BACKGROUND: The Pedagogical Residency program is a model of professional training for undergraduate courses, being an integrated program the National Policy of Teacher Training, whose purpose is in practical improvement through the insertion of the academic in the school environment. This program was inspired by the Medical Residency, which is a graduate teaching modality for physicians already graduated, as a form of clinical specialization. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the approximations and distances between the program in the area of Physical Education in relation to the medical program in a public university in Paraná. METHODS: The research is characterized as qualitative, focusing on the case study. Four coordinators of courses and residency programs linked to medical and physical education courses were interviewed. Data analysis was based on the principle of thematic categorization with a focus on content analysis. RESULTS: The results show that there are significant differences between the proposals, with medical residency training at the graduate level while the pedagogical residency is an initial formation, this reflects the structural and conceptual definitions on the way of insertion of such formative models in the professional environment. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that the purpose of teacher training based on professional residency models enables new experiences and paths, but which are still distant from the model offered in the medical area.

Remote interviews for medical residency selection during the initial COVID-19 crisis: a national survey

Background Medical training programs candidate’s interview is an integral part of the residency matching process. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, conducting these interviews was challenging due to infection prevention restrains (social distancing, namely) and travel restrictions. E-interviews were implemented by the Saudi Commission for Healthcare Specialties (SCFHS) since the matching cycle of March 2020 to hold the interviews in a safer virtual environment while maintaining the same matching quality and standards. Aim This study was conducted to assess the medical training residency program applicants’ satisfaction, stress, and other perspectives for the (SCFHS) March 2020 Matching-cycle conducted through an urgently implemented E-interviews process. Method A cross-sectional, nationwide survey (Additional file 1) was sent to 4153 residency-nominated applicants to the (SCFHS) March 2020 cycle. Results Among the 510 candidates who responded, 62.2% applied for medical specialties, 20.2% applied for surgical specialties, and 17.6% applied for critical care and emergency specialties. Most respondents (61.2%) never had previous experience with web-based video conferences. Most respondents (80.2%) used the Zoom application to conduct the current E-interviews, whereas only 15.9% used the FaceTime application. 63.3% of the respondents preferred E-interviews over in-person interviews, and 60.6% rated their experience as very good or excellent. 75.7% of the respondents agreed that all their residency program queries were adequately addressed during the E-interviews. At the same time, 52.2% of them agreed that E-interviews allowed them to represent themselves accurately. 28.2% felt no stress at all with their E-interviews experience, while 41.2% felt little stressed and only 8.2% felt highly stressed. The factors that were independently and inversely associated with applicants’ level of stress with E-interviews experience were their ability to represent themselves during the interviews (p = 0.001), cost-savings (p < 0.001), their overall rating of the E-interviews quality (p = 0.007) and the speed of the internet connection (p < 0.006). Conclusion Videoconferencing was implemented on an urgent basis during the COVID-19 pandemic in the medical residency application process in Saudi Arabia. It was perceived as an adequate and promising tool to replace in-person interviews in the future. Applicants’ satisfaction was mainly driven by good organization, cost-saving, and their ability to present themselves. Future studies to enhance this experience are warranted.