Hosting Zoom Webinars for Residency Recruitment
SAEM PULSE | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2021
By Daniel Novak, DO; Eric Quinn, MD; and Sabena Vaswani, MD
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The COVID-19 pandemic created a unique set of challenges for residency recruitment this application season. The standard application cycle consists of students touring hospitals and meeting with residents and faculty in person. In order to limit travel and potential exposure, recruitment pivoted online in 2020. While the virtual model alleviated the financial burden of the interview season for students, the shift made it difficult for residencies to showcase their programs. To combat this, and in order to engage with prospective applicants, dozens of emergency medicine residencies around the country hosted Zoom meetings, ranging from informal happy hours, to more structured webinar style sessions. The emergency medicine residency at Maimonides Medical Center hosted a webinar series for the purpose of giving students a
sense of our program. In order to give an honest depiction of the residency experience, the series was run by residents. We used our personal and residency social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to advertise the series. Residents and faculty also emailed EM advisors from different medical schools.
Format
Our program hosted a six-part Zoom series over the course of three months prior to the Electronic Residency Application Service® (ERAS®) submission deadline. We used the webinar setting and each meeting was followed by a 20- to 30-minute question and answer session. This setting allowed us to spotlight the hosts and presenters and to mute the audio and video of guests. We encouraged students to use the “raise hand,” “Q&A,”
and chat features to interact with the panelists. The series consisted of the following one-hour Zoom sessions: 1. “Applying to Emergency Medicine & How to be a Rotation Rockstar” This session was geared toward giving fourth-year medical students practical tips to excel in their audition rotations. 2. “Why Maimonides?” This session featured our program director and assistant program directors who spoke about the highlights of our residency program and answered commonly asked interview questions. 3. “Beyond Shift: Research & Subspecialties” This segment featured a faculty panel to showcase the ultrasound, simulation, event medicine, research, and pediatric EM departments.