Neurosurgery Applicant Perspective of Neurosurgery Residency Websites.

OBJECTIVE: Applicants rely heavily on virtual information in the form of neurosurgery residency websites (NRWs) to better understand a program's culture, faculty, and opportunities. There is a paucity of information regarding the value of NRW on applicant decision making. The advent of the supplemental ERAS application and continuation of virtual interviews may increase the propensity of which applicants use NRW. The objective of our study was to distribute a survey to further understand applicants' perceptions and opinions of NRW, as well as provide future direction for NRW optimization. METHODS: The current study is a single-institution, retrospective survey design. A survey was designed via Qualtrics software to evaluate applicant demographics, resident education, resident recruitment, and future directions. The survey includes the most frequently used variables on NRW. The survey was distributed to neurosurgery applicants who received an interview at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. RESULTS: Among the 293 applicants who received a link to the survey, 87/293 (29.7%) completed it. Respondents elected that useful website variables were "resident rotation schedules and hospital locations," "faculty listings and biographies," and "neurosurgery residency websites served as a first impression of a neurosurgery residency program." More than half of the respondents agreed that their rank list would not be the same without an NRW. The most strongly received statement for future directions was "Neurosurgery residency programs will benefit from renovating their residency website." CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest NRWs play a vital role in resident recruitment and decision making. Residency programs will benefit from this data and may use it to restructure their virtual recruitment tools and discover innovative virtual recruitment strategies. Our team elucidated the most important variables found on NRWs and proposed future directions for their improvement and the virtual application and recruitment process.

An evaluation of social media utilization by general surgery programs in the COVID-19 era.

BACKGROUND: Our study investigates how general surgery residency programs utilized social media to adapt to the challenges of COVID-19. METHODS: 319 participating general surgery residency programs provided by the Electronic Residency Application Service were analyzed in this study. Associated Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts were assessed to find virtual open houses and externships. RESULTS: Of the 319 program, 188 (59%) were found to have a social media presence. A total of 348 social media accounts were found, as some of the programs had separate residency and department accounts. Of all the social media accounts, 112 (32%) of the accounts were created after March 1, 2020. Virtual open houses opportunities were found to be advertised across all platforms. CONCLUSION: Many general surgery programs responded to the physical limitations of COVID-19 pandemic by increasingly utilizing social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual opportunities should be considered as a novel approach for future outreach and recruitment.