A Guide to the Medical School Curriculum Vitae.

Abstract

Although this lecture is aimed at medical students, it can also be utilized for residents, fellows, and junior faculty. The topic of teaching medical students about the fundamentals of creating a curriculum vitae (CV) is important because a CV serves as a record of scholastic and professional experiences.1 Thus, their CV will undoubtedly play a vital role in residency applications.2,3 Intentional instruction about the elements to incorporate in a CV are especially important for first-generation and underrepresented students in the medical field because they may not have had as much exposure to both the requirements of a residency application nor qualities of an effective CV. After this lecture, learners should be able to: 1) elaborate on the significance of a CV for medical students and discuss its purpose, 2) outline the elements that should and should not be included on a CV, 3) integrate knowledge gleaned from basic principles with provided examples to establish the foundation of their own CV. A PowerPoint lecture was used to explain the purpose of a CV and the elements to include in a personal CV for medical students. The lecture took place via Zoom and was provided at no cost to all UCISOM medical students. Students were given a short survey after the session to assess their understanding of why it is important to create and maintain a CV, including an evaluation of their overall satisfaction with the lecture presentation. All the respondents (n=10) found the workshop to be useful and enjoyed the ability to see student examples while 80% of the respondents (n=8) found their knowledge of CVs increased because of the session. On a Likert scale from 1-5, with a 1 indicating "very unconfident" and 5 indicating "very confident," 90% of respondents (n=9) indicated they are now confident or very confident in building or updating their CV after this session. Overall, the educational content was found to be effective. Although the sample size from the survey was modest at best, we feel the survey data and comments from attendees during and after the session indicate the effectiveness of the content. From its initial implementation, we learned that this lecture can be given by any level of medical education professional (student, administrator, etc) due to the comprehensiveness of the presentation. We also learned that using video conferencing such as Zoom was an effective administration method but could also be replaced by in-person learning without much difficulty. Overall, we deem this presentation to be easy to administer, thorough, full of examples, and educationally effective. Curriculum vitae, CV, medical student, residency application, electronic residency application service, ERAS.