Mp47-01 integration of Critical Thinking and Technical Skills Into Residency Interviews May Improve Insight Into Candidate Potential

Abstract

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of candidates for residency is difficult. No defined interview metric accurately correlates with residency performance. For family medicine residents, critical thinking skills assessed at the beginning of training did predict academic success. Thus, we explored the feasibility, utility and the candidate's receptiveness to integrating critical thinking and technical skills into residency interviews.METHODS: Three critical thinking questions (spatial insight, communication of complex ideas and divergent thinking) and 2 skill stations (laparoscopic peg transfer and open suturing) were incorporated into the traditional interview. Two separate scores (1-5, Likert scale) were provided based on the candidate's performance in the traditional interview (TI) and in the critical thinking (CT)/skills (SK) stations. Anonymous candidate questionnaires assessed their receptiveness. Scores were analyzed with paired t-tests and questionnaire responses were analyzed using Wilcoxon rank sum and chisquare tests.RESULTS: Thirty-seven candidates were interviewed. Median TI score of 4.1 (IQR 3.7, 4.3) was significantly different from the median CTSK of 3.8 (IQR 3.3, 4.1) (<0.001). For 8 (22%) candidates, the CTSK score was greater than the TI and for 15 (44.4%) candidates, the difference between the CTSK and TI score was > 0.5 points. Amongst candidates who received the highest TI scores (4-4.4 and 4.5-5.0), their median CTSK was lower: 3.85 (2.8, 4.4) and 3.95 (3.8, 4.7), respectively. Twenty-four (65%) candidates completed the questionnaire. Of these, 15 (63%) and 18 (75%) felt the CT and SK, respectively, gave them the opportunity to demonstrate capabilities not normally assessed. The majority of candidates, 21 (88%) and 18 (60%), believed the CT and SK, respectively, were fair (Table ).CONCLUSIONS: Integrating CTSK into interviews was feasible and provided further insight into a candidate's qualifications. CTSK was well received with the majority of candidates seeing it as an opportunity to demonstrate occult skills. These exploratory results should stimulate further evaluation of the utility of CTSK and its ability to predict a candidate's success in residency via a multi-institutional platform.