No difference in subsequent trainee satisfaction associated with in-person exposure prior to remote interviews

ABSTRACT

Background

In 2020–2021, residency and fellowship applicants participated in virtual interviews. There was concern that trainees who had not been to the area before would potentially have different satisfaction with their new workplace and community.

Objective

To compare satisfaction and likelihood to recommend work and community among new trainees with or without prior exposure to a single academic center or its environs.

Methods

We conducted an IRB-approved cross-sectional survey of new trainees. An electronic survey included demographic items, self-report of prior exposure to the area, satisfaction with the program and area, and likelihood to recommend the program and area. Descriptive statistics were used for responses and Chi square tests for comparisons.

Results

In September 2021 and May 2022 electronic surveys were sent to all 173 trainees who started residency or fellowship in July 2021, which had 87 responses (50.3% response rate) and 31 (18.0% response rate) responses, respectively. At both times, most respondents were interns. The majority of the September group (55.6%), while 38.7% of the May group had prior exposure to the area. Overall, the majority were satisfied with Penn State Health and would recommend their workplace. The majority also agreed they were satisfied with their new community and would recommend it to others. There were no significant differences in the proportions of satisfied trainees for any of the four outcomes at either timepoint.

Conclusions

Satisfaction with training and the community were not significantly different for trainees with or without prior in-person exposure to the institution or surrounding area.

KEYWORDS:

• in-person
• virtual
• interview
• visit
• exposure
• trainee
• resident
• satisfaction

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Nevada Cox, Jocelyn Simmers, and Joslyn Kirby. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jocelyn Simmers and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declarations

This is an observational study. The Pennsylvania State University Institutional Review Board has confirmed that no ethical approval was required.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2022.2122765

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.