Qualitative Study of Fourth-Year Medical Students Experiences in Assessing Program Fit Through Virtual Interviews

Background Limited literature exists on the perception of virtual interviewing by medical students in a post-pandemic environment. The current study was conducted to observe the subjective experiences of medical students participating in virtual interviewing and how the ability to assess cultural fit is impacted. Methods Recently matched fourth-year medical students were interviewed utilizing a phenomenological approach. Participants were asked to rate ability to assess three common metrics of culture fit of a program on a Likert scale and elaborate on their score. Culture fitness metrics included: How much the program cares about trainees, how satisfied trainees are with their program, and how well trainees get along with each other. Results Fourteen fourth-year medical students participated in the study, including specialty fields of Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, General Surgery, Med-Peds, Psychiatry, Internal Medicine, and Family Medicine. Gender identity of the participants included 57.1% (n = 8) female and 42.9% (n = 6) male. Applicants were asked if they preferred virtual or in-person interviewing, with 92.9% (n = 13) preferring virtual interviewing prior to the application cycle and 46.2% (n = 6) of those participants changing their preference to in-person interviews following the application cycle. Average participant scores for the ability to assess how much the program seemed to care about trainees, how satisfied the current trainees were with their program, and how well the trainees got along were 3.4 (Range 2-4.5), 3.0 (Range 1-4.5), 3.1 (Range 1–5) respectively. Most participants reported their scores for ability to assess culture and fit would have increased for in-person interviews. Conclusion Applicants in this small qualitative study reported difficulty assessing program culture through virtual interviewing, with some participants preferring in-person interviewing following the interview season. Programs should consider adding an in-person component to interview day, especially for specialties with extended training timelines.