432: Do Male Emergency Physicians Focus on Different Personal and Professional Traits In Writing the Standard Letters of Recommendation for Fourth Year Medical Students Than Their Female Colleagues?
2010; Elsevier BV; Volume: 56; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/j.annemergmed.2010.06.474
ISSN1097-6760
AutoresVictor Tucci, Rebecca Merritt, K. Somai, Pak Lok Boris Cheng, Kaitlin O’Keefe, T. Sanson,
Tópico(s)Diversity and Career in Medicine
ResumoStudy ObjectivesEach summer, emergency physicians and faculty at residency programs are bombarded by eager fourth year medical students requesting standard letters of recommendation (SLORs) to apply to emergency medicine residency programs. The requirement of a standard letter of recommendation (SLOR) has come to distinguish emergency medicine programs from the other medical specialties. Designed to be a truly objective assessment of a medical student's suitability and potential for success, the SLOR still retains a comment section that enables the individual evaluator to include handwritten remarks about an applicant's intelligence, knowledgebase or overall personality. These remarks can provide the color and context for a student's application. We anticipated that there would be no difference in the areas male or female letter writers would chose to comment on in the SLOR and that the comments would be evenly distributed.MethodsWe reviewed all applications to an allopathic emergency medicine residency program during the 2008-2009 year. The files of any current residents were removed prior to review to maintain confidentiality. Files without SLORs were also removed and composite SLORs, written by multiple physicians, were removed. We developed 39 categories for comparison. These categories included all synonyms for a given term (eg, intelligent= smart, bright, apt, genius, sharp, intellectual) and ranged from star quality to knowledgebase to work ethic to various personality traits (eg, enthusiasm, low maintenance, etc). The data tested our null hypothesis of no relationship between evaluator sex and specific applicant personality traits or characteristics. Pearson Chi-Square Test was used to analyze larger categories. For small categories, which had expected N <5, the Fisher's Exact Test was used. All analyses were performed using SAS 9.2 by SAS Institute.ResultsAfter reviewing the data from all 39 categories, we uncovered four statistically significant differences. Male evaluators were less likely to view applicants as eager/enthusiastic, with an odds ratio of 0.72 and 95% CI 0.52-1.00 (p=0.0488) than their female counterparts. Male evaluators were also less likely to comment that applicants were level-headed/low-maintenance with an odds ratio of 0.57 and 95% CI 0.38-0.87 (p=0.0080). Men were also less likely to note that an applicant was a team player, with an odds ratio of 0.64 and 95% CI 0.40-1.01 (p=0.0538). However, male evaluators were more likely to characterize applicants as solid, with an odds ratio of 2.02 and CI 95% 1.14-3.60 (p=0.0147).ConclusionMale emergency physicians appear to focus less on an applicant's enthusiasm for the field and their ability to function as a team player than female emergency physicians. Additionally, men appear to value an applicant's relaxed/easygoing or hassle-free personality less than female emergency physicians. Male emergency physicians, on the other hand, are more likely than women to note that an applicant is a solid prospect. Study ObjectivesEach summer, emergency physicians and faculty at residency programs are bombarded by eager fourth year medical students requesting standard letters of recommendation (SLORs) to apply to emergency medicine residency programs. The requirement of a standard letter of recommendation (SLOR) has come to distinguish emergency medicine programs from the other medical specialties. Designed to be a truly objective assessment of a medical student's suitability and potential for success, the SLOR still retains a comment section that enables the individual evaluator to include handwritten remarks about an applicant's intelligence, knowledgebase or overall personality. These remarks can provide the color and context for a student's application. We anticipated that there would be no difference in the areas male or female letter writers would chose to comment on in the SLOR and that the comments would be evenly distributed. Each summer, emergency physicians and faculty at residency programs are bombarded by eager fourth year medical students requesting standard letters of recommendation (SLORs) to apply to emergency medicine residency programs. The requirement of a standard letter of recommendation (SLOR) has come to distinguish emergency medicine programs from the other medical specialties. Designed to be a truly objective assessment of a medical student's suitability and potential for success, the SLOR still retains a comment section that enables the individual evaluator to include handwritten remarks about an applicant's intelligence, knowledgebase or overall personality. These remarks can provide the color and context for a student's application. We anticipated that there would be no difference in the areas male or female letter writers would chose to comment on in the SLOR and that the comments would be evenly distributed. MethodsWe reviewed all applications to an allopathic emergency medicine residency program during the 2008-2009 year. The files of any current residents were removed prior to review to maintain confidentiality. Files without SLORs were also removed and composite SLORs, written by multiple physicians, were removed. We developed 39 categories for comparison. These categories included all synonyms for a given term (eg, intelligent= smart, bright, apt, genius, sharp, intellectual) and ranged from star quality to knowledgebase to work ethic to various personality traits (eg, enthusiasm, low maintenance, etc). The data tested our null hypothesis of no relationship between evaluator sex and specific applicant personality traits or characteristics. Pearson Chi-Square Test was used to analyze larger categories. For small categories, which had expected N <5, the Fisher's Exact Test was used. All analyses were performed using SAS 9.2 by SAS Institute. We reviewed all applications to an allopathic emergency medicine residency program during the 2008-2009 year. The files of any current residents were removed prior to review to maintain confidentiality. Files without SLORs were also removed and composite SLORs, written by multiple physicians, were removed. We developed 39 categories for comparison. These categories included all synonyms for a given term (eg, intelligent= smart, bright, apt, genius, sharp, intellectual) and ranged from star quality to knowledgebase to work ethic to various personality traits (eg, enthusiasm, low maintenance, etc). The data tested our null hypothesis of no relationship between evaluator sex and specific applicant personality traits or characteristics. Pearson Chi-Square Test was used to analyze larger categories. For small categories, which had expected N <5, the Fisher's Exact Test was used. All analyses were performed using SAS 9.2 by SAS Institute. ResultsAfter reviewing the data from all 39 categories, we uncovered four statistically significant differences. Male evaluators were less likely to view applicants as eager/enthusiastic, with an odds ratio of 0.72 and 95% CI 0.52-1.00 (p=0.0488) than their female counterparts. Male evaluators were also less likely to comment that applicants were level-headed/low-maintenance with an odds ratio of 0.57 and 95% CI 0.38-0.87 (p=0.0080). Men were also less likely to note that an applicant was a team player, with an odds ratio of 0.64 and 95% CI 0.40-1.01 (p=0.0538). However, male evaluators were more likely to characterize applicants as solid, with an odds ratio of 2.02 and CI 95% 1.14-3.60 (p=0.0147). After reviewing the data from all 39 categories, we uncovered four statistically significant differences. Male evaluators were less likely to view applicants as eager/enthusiastic, with an odds ratio of 0.72 and 95% CI 0.52-1.00 (p=0.0488) than their female counterparts. Male evaluators were also less likely to comment that applicants were level-headed/low-maintenance with an odds ratio of 0.57 and 95% CI 0.38-0.87 (p=0.0080). Men were also less likely to note that an applicant was a team player, with an odds ratio of 0.64 and 95% CI 0.40-1.01 (p=0.0538). However, male evaluators were more likely to characterize applicants as solid, with an odds ratio of 2.02 and CI 95% 1.14-3.60 (p=0.0147). ConclusionMale emergency physicians appear to focus less on an applicant's enthusiasm for the field and their ability to function as a team player than female emergency physicians. Additionally, men appear to value an applicant's relaxed/easygoing or hassle-free personality less than female emergency physicians. Male emergency physicians, on the other hand, are more likely than women to note that an applicant is a solid prospect. Male emergency physicians appear to focus less on an applicant's enthusiasm for the field and their ability to function as a team player than female emergency physicians. Additionally, men appear to value an applicant's relaxed/easygoing or hassle-free personality less than female emergency physicians. Male emergency physicians, on the other hand, are more likely than women to note that an applicant is a solid prospect.
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