Professionalism and the match: a pediatric residency program's postinterview no-call policy and its impact on applicants

Abstract

Objective: The National Residency Matching Program allows match participants to recruit each other and try to influence future ranking decisions in their favor, but it also states that participants "must not make statements implying commitment." The National Residency Matching Program cautions against statements such as, "We plan to rank you very highly on our list," because they can be misinterpreted as an informal commitment. To avoid issues around miscommunication, the University of Washington Pediatric Residency Program instituted a postinterview no-call policy with applicants. The purpose of this study was to determine this policy's impact on applicants.

Methods: A Web-based, anonymous survey was sent after the National Residency Matching Program deadline for submitting rank lists but before match day to applicants who interviewed at our program from 2003 to 2006. Applicants were asked whether our program's position on their rank list would have been influenced more favorably, less favorably, or not at all had they received a telephone call from our program.

Results: The survey response rate was 53% (n = 468). A total of 10.3% (n = 48) of the applicants to our program would have been favorably influenced by a telephone call after their interview. Significantly more applicants reported that a recruiting call from our program would have caused them to rank our program more favorably in 2006 (17.2%) than in 2003-2005 combined (8.4%).

Conclusions: We identified a vulnerable applicant population whose rank lists are potentially influenced by questionable postinterview communication from residency programs. To protect the integrity and fairness of the match, we call for more explicit guidelines regarding postinterview communication with applicants.