[West J Emerg Med. 2009;10(4):267.]

Introduction: Residency coordinators may be overwhelmed when scheduling residency interviews.Applicants often have to coordinate interviews with multiple programs at once, and relying on verbalor email confirmation may delay the process. Our objective was to determine applicant mean time toschedule and satisfaction using online scheduling.

Methods: This pilot study is a retrospective analysis performed on a sample of applicants offeredinterviews at an urban county emergency medicine residency. Applicants were asked their estimatedtime to schedule with the online system compared to their average time using other methods. Inaddition, they were asked on a five-point anchored scale to rate their satisfaction.

Results: Of 171 applicants, 121 completed the survey (70.8%). Applicants were scheduling anaverage of 13.3 interviews. Applicants reported scheduling interviews using the online systemin mean of 46.2 minutes (median 10, range 1-1800) from the interview offer as compared with amean of 320.2 minutes (median 60, range 3-2880) for other programs not using this system. Thisdifference was statistically significant. In addition, applicants were more likely to rate their satisfactionusing the online system as “satisfied” (83.5% vs 16.5%). Applicants were also more likely to statethat they preferred scheduling their interviews using the online system rather than the way otherprograms scheduled interviews (74.2% vs 4.1%) and that the online system aided them coordinatingtravel arrangements (52.1% vs 4.1%).

Conclusion: An online interview scheduling system is associated with higher satisfaction amongapplicants both in coordinating travel arrangements and in overall satisfaction. [West J Emerg Med.2015;16(2):352-354.]

Introduction: Residency interview apparel has traditionally been the dark business suit. We changed the interview dress code from a traditionally established unwritten ‘formal’ attire to an explicitly described ‘informal’ attire. We sought to assess if the change in dress code attire changed applicants’ perceptions of the residency program or decreased costs.

Methods: The authors conducted an anonymous survey of applicants applying to one emergency medicine residency program during two application cycles ending in 2012 and 2013. Applicants were asked if the change in dress code affected their perception of the program, comfort level, overall costs and how it affected their rank lists.

Results: We sent the survey to 308 interviewed applicants over two years. Of those, 236 applicants completed the survey for a combined response rate of 76.6% (236/308). Among respondents, 85.1% (200 of 235) stated they appreciated the change; 66.7% (154 of 231) stated the change caused them to worry more about what to wear. Males were more uncomfortable than females due to the lack of uniformity on the interview day (18.5% of males [25/135] vs. 7.4% of females [7/95], collapsed results p-value 0.008). A total of 27.7% (64/231) agreed that the costs were less overall. The change caused 50 of 230 (21.7%) applicants to rank the program higher on their rank list and only one applicant to rank the program lower.

Conclusion: A change to a more informal dress code resulted in more comfort and fewer costs for applicants to a single residency program. The change also resulted in some applicants placing the program higher on their rank order list. [West J Emerg Med. 2015;16(1):-0.]

Alameda County Medical Center; University of California, San Francisco; Washington University, St. Louis