To Post or Not to Post: Does Applicants’ Social Media Affect Family Medicine Resident Recruitment?

Fam Med. 2021;53(9):766-772.からの抜粋。テーマは面白い。

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Current literature on review of applicant social media (SoMe) content for resident recruitment is scarce. With the recent increase in the use of privacy settings, and the cost of the recruitment process, the aim of this study was to describe the practice and outcomes of review of applicant SoMe in resident recruitment and its association with program director or program characteristics.

METHODS: This study was part of the 2020 Council of Academic Family Medicine’s Educational Research Alliance (CERA) annual survey of family medicine residency program directors (PDs) in the United States.

RESULTS: The overall response rate for the survey was 39.8% (249/626). About 40% of PDs reported reviewing applicant SoMe content. The majority (88.9%) of programs did not inform applicants of their SoMe review practices. The most common findings of SoMe review were that the content raised no concerns (38/94; 40.4%) or was consistent with the application material (34/94; 36.2%). Forty PDs (17.0%) have ever moved an applicant up or down the rank list based on SoMe review. Review of applicant SoMe was not statistically associated with program size, program type, PD age, PD SoMe use, or program SoMe use.

CONCLUSIONS: SoMe review has not become routine practice in family medicine resident recruitment. The outcome of SoMe review was mostly consistent with the applicant profile without any concerns and only very few changed the ranking order. This calls for more studies to explore the value of SoMe review for resident selection regarding its effect on future performance.

40%のPDがApplicantsのsocial mediaを見ている。88.9%がそのことをApplicantsに知らせていない。Social MediaをチェックしているPDの17%が実際にそれでランクを動かしている。統計手法については下記の通り。

We used descriptive analyses (percentages) to describe participants, such as program size (small, medium, and large), program location (Northeast, Midwest, West Coast, etc.), and type (university based, community based, etc) and practice of examination of applicant SoMe. We used χ2 analyses to examine the association between the practice of examination of SoMe with the various PD and program characteristics. Respondents who indicated three, four, five, or six SoMe accounts for themselves or their programs were collapsed into one variable “three or more,” as well as frequency of use collapsed from “once a week” and “less than once a week” to “once a week or less.”