D epartment
of
M edicine
Con ne c ti ng T e c h n o lo g y , Ed uca t i o n a n d D i s cove ry w ith H um anis m in Me dicine
Vol. 10 Issue 3 Jul. 2021
Virtual Recruitment: Pros & Cons Throughout history, one could make the argument that some of the greatest advancements in civilization have come from dedicated communities navigating the challenges placed before them. In modern times, COVID-19 has brought about unique obstacles that healthcare providers from all over the globe have worked tirelessly to overcome. As health systems continue to adapt in response to these new demands, practices in medical education itself have undergone change to preserve quality while complying with community safety guidelines. In particular, the resident recruitment and interview process saw significant change from years past. As our department begins to plan ahead, it is apparent some of these changes may have had unforeseen advantages. To begin, interviews were held virtually over Zoom representing a change that is likely here to stay at least in some capacity according to Dr. Mark Rasnake. Traditional interviews have created challenges for recruiting given that applicants will often seek interviews within their geographical area as they must schedule and finance their own travel expenses. With virtual interviews, applicants who may have not otherwise interviewed with our institution now have the option to do so virtually. Also, according to our residency coordinators, the number of interviews that were cancelled or rescheduled by applicants this last year was greatly reduced helping to stabilize the scheduling process. This may serve to improve our residency and fellowship programs through the matching of stronger applicants from more diverse places and backgrounds. Virtual interviews also benefit applicants themselves as the financial burden and scheduling conflicts brought about by the traditional interview season are largely circumvented. Medical students often rely heavily on student
loans for general living expenses and many current residents report taking out personal loans in the past to have funded their interview season travels. Lastly, virtual interviews also proved beneficial for faculty interviewers themselves as their flexibility was both convenient and less obstructive to other patient care activities. Another change that will likely persist is the applicant pre-interview meet and greet sessions. This was a scheduled Zoom meeting the night before an applicant’s interview where current residents volunteered to attend and share their perspective on what they enjoy about our residency program and the city of Knoxville as a whole. Applicant feedback on these sessions was overwhelmingly positive serving to give applicants a sense of the positive social atmosphere established at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. When paired with a virtual interview, this also provided an opportunity for applicants to address continued on page 2 any technological difficulties in a more
Points of View
by our residents and overcomes one of the key shortcomings of the ambulatory clinic experience for them. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Clay Callison and Mr. Michael Saad for prioritizing this project and dedicating funds and personnel to make this possible. To our clinic directors, Dr. Juli Williams and Kay Rangnekar, in addition to the staff in the IM/Ob/Gyn clinic; my profound thanks for their perseverance and patience through this difficult transition. The residents and attendings are also going through a period of adapting to a new system and I appreciate their understanding and receptiveness to these changes. The importance of having an integrated EMR can’t be overemphasized. An integrated EMR can readily provide information that is key to resolving complex clinical problems. Clinicians often feel continued on page 2 hampered by the lack of information from a
The desire to have an integrated Electronic Medical Record (EMR) in the Internal Medicine (IM) clinic and the hospital has been ongoing for several years. For me personally, completion of this project has been a mission. Through the extraordinary generosity of our CEO, Mr. Joe Landsman, and the exceptional efforts of a whole team of individuals our efforts were finally successful in Rajiv Dhand, MD, Chair May of 2021. The integration of the EMR addresses an important issue that has been repeatedly raised 1