gms | German Medical Science

The international state of research on selection procedures for medical students is also taken into account at German medical faculties in the use of cognitive and psychosocial abilities as criteria for predicting the success of studies [1]. At the University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H), student selection is a two-step process with a letter of motivation in the first step and a selection day with three different interview situations in the second [2]. In view of the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic, it was necessary to create an alternative for the selection process of medical and psychology students for the winter semester 2020/21. The UW/H decided on a contact-free version of the selection days and their relocation to virtual rooms of the remote conference service Zoom [https://www.zoom.us/], which, among other things, enables audiovisual and real-time communication with several participants. The possibility of conducting job interviews virtually is a relatively new discipline, although this format offers applicants more flexibility at lower costs and is an acceptable alternative to personal interviews for the faculty [3].

This project report describes the adaptation of the procedure to virtual space and its acceptance by the reviewers of the UW/H.

For reasons of fairness and practicability, the virtual selection procedure was implemented in zoom meetings with the following three stations of 30 minutes each:

1.

biographical individual interview with two reviewers in tandem (medical/psychological and student reviewer);

2.

presentation on a topic of your own choice and subsequent discussion with the two reviewers;

3.

two different tasks in a multiple mini interview.

For the medical and psychological reviewers (n=53), online training courses on the functionality and handling of the virtual zoom rooms were held in preparation. For the student reviewers (n=55) participating for the first time, the focus was on explaining the selection criteria and objectives at the various stations.

With the invitation three weeks before their respective selection day, the applicants received information for the persons affected by the collection of personal data from the data protection officer of UW/H. Three days before, they received their number and the individual schedule with information on when they are expected to arrive in which zoom room for which station in the selection process. On the selection day, the reviewers remained in their tandem in the same zoom room and were able to assess the applicants during their rotation period. The logistics of a selection day (morning) are shown in table 1 [Tab. 1].

In order to examine the feasibility and acceptance of the virtual selection procedure, the reviewers were sent an online questionnaire after the selection days (ethics vote of the UW/H 88/2020). The questionnaire contains 8 socio-demographic questions (e.g. age, gender, activity as an reviewer) and on a five-level Likert scale (1=strongly disagree ... 5=strongly agree) 5 organizational questions (e.g. procedure, technology) and 8 content questions (e.g. fairness, contact, assessment of the applicants) as well as 3 final open questions (see attachment 1 [Attach. 1]).

In the summer semester 2020, six selection days were held for the model course of study in human medicine. A total of 83 reviewers (41 medical, 42 student reviewers) examined 178 applicants in the selection interviews for their motivation and suitability for UW/H. The selection for the study programs in the Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy took place over four days. A total of 25 reviewers (12 psychological, 13 student reviewers) examined 90 applicants for the Bachelor's program in Psychology and 15 applicants for the Master's program in Clinical Psychology.

58 reviewers (21 female, 37 male) participated in the online evaluation. The average sum of the evaluation of 3.9±0.7 (range 1-5) corresponds to an approval of the virtual selection procedure, in which 89.7% (n=52) of the reviewers would participate again. Student reviewers assessed the virtual selection procedure significantly more critically than medical and psychological reviewers with respect to organization (Kruskal-Wallis-H=11.6, p=.003) and content (Kruskal-Wallis-H=7.1, p=.028), as shown in figure 1 [Fig. 1].

The decision for the adaptation of the selection procedure of the UW/H to the virtual zoom room can be evaluated as adequate, since all selection days could be carried out successfully. The evaluation by the reviewers confirms the acceptance of the virtual selection procedure, although the student reviewers judge this change more critically, as already the introduction of the MMIs into the selection procedure [4].

However, the benefit of digital methods should be considered in terms of whether the established techniques of personnel selection can be surpassed [5]. This means that the virtual selection process should yield comparable results to the university's own selection process, which has been in place for more than 30 years [6] and in which great value is placed on the "personality and talent" of applicants, particularly in the Departments of Human Medicine and Psychology of the Faculty of Health.

The results and analysis of this exceptional situation will be used to conduct the upcoming selection procedure for the summer semester 2021 in virtual space. A valid assessment for the future use of a virtual selection procedure as a possible supplement to the personal selection interviews at the University of Witten/Herdecke remains to be made.

The authors would like to thank the staff of the Admissions Offices for Human Medicine and Psychology, Cornelia Bock, Elke Moch, Dagmar Reinders and Petra Stammnitz as well as the medical students Marie Dahlke and Konstantin März for their active support in adapting the selection procedure to the virtual space.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.