Comparison of Residency Interview Gifting Practices and Influence on Program Perception by Specialty
*Meagan Rosenberg, *Oswaldo Subillaga, *Aixa Perez Coulter, David B. Tashjian, Neal Seymour, Michael V. Tirabassi
Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA, United States.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic prompted radical changes in the interview process for the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). Along with virtual interviews, some programs began to send prospective residents various gifts as a recruitment strategy. This study aims to characterize gifting patterns across specialties and the potential influence on candidates? perceptions of the programs.
Study Design: Survey study with a 6-week collection period at a single institution. Surveys were sent to anesthesia, emergency medicine (EM), pediatrics, internal medicine (IM), radiology, and general surgery (GS) residents who participated in the NRMP for voluntary completion. Deidentified survey data were separated based on interview type (virtual [VI], in-person [IPI], and hybrid [HI]). Collected data included gift receipt, gift type, and resident?s perception of whether the gift impacted their program ranking. Nominal data was compared by Chi square.
Results: 100 completed surveys were returned (response rate 45%) representing NRMP years 2016-2023. 18% matched prior to 2021. 73 respondents participated in a single interview type and 27 reported multiple types. Gift-related questions were answered for each modality in which the interviewee participated. 86 reported VIs, 5 HIs, and 23 IPIs. 81 respondents reported applying to a single specialty, and 19 applied to multiple. The predominant specialties were GS (27%), EM (20%) and IM (16%). 77% of respondents received a gift in connection with their interview. 94% in the pre-COVID era received a gift while interviewing compared to 77% who interviewed in 2021 or later (p=0.12). 77.8% of GS respondents received gifts during their interview process. Across all specialties, IPIs received a gift 96% of the time, HIs 80%, and VIs 73% (p=0.55). Of note, 5 out of 6 programs with IPIs received gifts 100% of the time with one outlier of 0% (IM, n=1). There was a non-significant difference in gifts received for GS IPIs (100%) and VIs (66.7%) compared to other specialties. GS IPIs receiving any gift were significantly more likely to rank the program higher than interviewees in other specialties (p=0.05), however this was not true for VIs. Of note, all GS IPIs received a pre-interview meal. VIs across all specialties were significantly less likely to have a meal shared over a virtual interface than HIs or IPIs were to share a meal (p<0.01, p<0.01 respectively). When not controlling for interview type, all respondents reported no change or improved program perception and ranking based on gift receipt with no decreases, however there was no variation by specialty (Table 1).
Conclusion: Since the advent of virtual interviewing, significant heterogeneity has developed in the gifting experience. GS falls within a similar gifting pattern when compared to other specialties, however, they may gift less frequently in VIs than other programs. This trend bears further characterization to monitor for possible bias in the NRMP.
Gift receipt and influence by specialty.
| GS | Ortho | ObGyn | ENT | Anes | Rad | EM | IM | FM | Ped | Psych | Child Neuro | P-value | |
| Gift Received | 21 (78%) | 1 (33%) | 1 (100%) | 1 (100%) | 9 (60%) | 2 (100%) | 19 (95%) | 12 (75%) | 3 (100%) | 6 (67%) | 1 (50%) | 1 (100%) | 0.28 |
| Improved Perception of Program's Interest | 7 (33%) | 2 (100%) | 1 (100%) | 0 (0%) | 4 (37%) | 0 (0%) | 8 (44%) | 4 (31%) | 1 (33%) | 4 (67%) | 0 (0%) | 1 (100%) | 0.40 |
| Improved Perception of Program's Resources | 7 (33%) | 2 (100%) | 1 (100%) | 0 (0%) | 6 (55%) | 0 (0%) | 9 (47%) | 5 (39%) | 2 (67%) | 4 (67%) | 1 (100%) | 0 (0%) | 0.39 |
| Improved Candidate Ranking of Program | 3 (14%) | 2 (100%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 2 (17%) | 0 (0%) | 3 (16%) | 1 (8%) | 0 (0%) | 1 (17%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0.24 |
GS: general surgery; Ortho: orthopedic surgery; ObGyn: obstetrics and gynecology; ENT: otolaryngology; Anes: anesthesia; Rad: diagnostic radiology; EM: Emergency medicine; IM: Internal medicine; FM: Family medicine; Ped: pediatrics; Psych: psychiatry; Child Neuro: Child neurology
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