| Equity in interviews: do personal characteristics impact on admission interview scores? | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 20946478 Owner: NLM Status: In-Process |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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CONTEXT: Research indicates that some social groups are disadvantaged by medical school selection systems. The stage(s) of a selection process at which this occurs is unknown, but at interview, when applicant and interviewer are face-to-face, there is potential for social bias to occur. METHODS: We performed a detailed audit of the interview process for a single-entry year to a large UK medical school. Our audit included investigating the personal characteristics of both interviewees and interviewers to find out whether any of these factors, including the degree of social matching between individual pairs of interviewees and interviewers, influenced the interview scores awarded. RESULTS: A total of 320 interviewers interviewed 734 applicants, providing complete data for 2007 interviewer-interviewee interactions. The reliability of the interview process was estimated using generalisability theory at 0.82-0.87. For both interviewers and interviewees, gender, ethnic background, socio-economic group and type of school attended had no influence on the interview scores awarded or achieved. Staff and student interviewer marks did not differ significantly. Although numbers in each group of staff interviewers were too small for formal statistical analysis, there were no obvious differences in marks awarded between different medical specialties or between interviewers with varying amounts of interviewing experience. CONCLUSIONS: Our data provide reassurance that the interview does not seem to be the stage of selection at which some social groups are disadvantaged. These results support the continued involvement of senior medical students in the interview process. Despite the lack of evidence that an interview is useful for predicting future academic or clinical success, most medical schools continue to use interviews as a fundamental component of their selection process. Our study has shown that at least this arguably misplaced reliance upon interviewing is not introducing further social bias into the selection system. |
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Authors:
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Andrew B Lumb; Matthew Homer; Amy Miller |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Medical education Volume: 44 ISSN: 1365-2923 ISO Abbreviation: Med Educ Publication Date: 2010 Nov |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2010-10-15 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 7605655 Medline TA: Med Educ Country: England |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 1077-83 Citation Subset: IM |
Copyright Information:
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© Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2010. |
Affiliation:
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Leeds Institute of Medical Education, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. a.lumb@leeds.ac.uk |
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Comment In:
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Med Educ. 2010 Nov;44(11):1054-6
[PMID:
20963917
]
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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