ABSTRACT
Virtual education is an evolving field within the realm of surgical training. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the application of virtual technologies in surgical education has undergone significant exploration and advancement. While originally developed to supplement in-person curricula for the development of clinical decision-making, virtual surgical education has expanded into the realms of clinical decision-making, surgical, and non-surgical skills acquisition. This manuscript aims to discuss the various applications of virtual surgical education as well as the advantages and disadvantages associated with each education modality, while offering recommendations on best practices and future directions.
ABSTRACT
Virtual residency interviews during COVID-19 pandemic created a need for residency programs to use social media to increase their visibility and connect with potential applicants. This was, however, new and a road never travelled for many programs. This report describes how our General Surgery Residency Program increased its presence through social media by using various exposure methods and approaches, including diversifying presence and developing candid personalized content. Results suggest that these methods have increased our exposure and reach from an average of 7 people per post to posts reaching over 4500 people. Moreover, the video posts introducing our residents and faculty provided the highest activity and reach. Thus, appropriate use of social media with described interventions and new content creation could exponentially increase the visibility of a residency program. Moreover, educating faculty and residents on the use and importance of social media could increase their interest and participation as well.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Since residency interviews became virtual due to COVID-19, and likely continue in the future, programs must find ways to improve their non-traditional recruiting methods. The objective of this study was to evaluate effectiveness of a structured, non-traditional approach on visibility and perception of the program as well as virtual interview experience. METHODS: The focus of our approach was to ensure constant engagement while maintaining all pre-interview communication as resident-led and informal. The program focused on improving visibility and outreach through an organized utilization of social media platforms highlighting people and local culture. The virtual interview process was restructured with resident-led virtual meet and greets followed by small group discussions and providing virtual hospital tours, videos, and slides of the program's culture and expectationson the interview day. Perception of the program and the new approach to the interview process was assessed via an anonymous survey. RESULTS: The program's visibility was measured via social media analytics with an increase in reach on Facebook from 0/post to as high as 4200/post and engagement 2/post to nearly 600/post. Tweet Impressions from approximately 350/mo to 11,000/mo with the increase in new Followers/month by 532.5%. Increase in total number of applicants in 2021 of 16% compared to average between 2018 and 2020. Survey response rate was 66.1%; of those 53.8% of interviewees attended a virtual meet and greet session. Perceptions of interviewees on our program was exclusively positive. Specific characteristics of the program that would make students rank us higher were program's culture, people, academics, and clinical experiences they would get as residents. CONCLUSIONS: The exponential increase in our program's visibility and exclusively positive program assessment suggest that a structured approach utilizing social media and virtual technologies could improve both the recruitment and the virtual interview process while maintaining positive perceptions of the program.