Preparing students for residency interviews through a residency interview boot camp

Abstract

Background and purposeTo describe the offering of the residency boot camp activity at one college of pharmacy for students in their fourth professional year. Educational activity and settingStudent pharmacists in their final professional year of pharmacy school were invited to participate in a voluntary residency boot camp activity. Originally, the activity consisted of four parts: (1) guidance on preparing for residency interviews; (2) a 1:1 mock interview with a resident, faculty member, residency preceptor or area program director; (3) a review of the student's curriculum vitae (CV) and letter of intent; and (4) a review of the application timeline and process. Based on the feedback, the activity was changed to include five parts: (1) orientation/welcome session, (2) mock interview, (3) case presentation, (4) podium presentation, and (5) a debriefing session on the day's activities and to answer any remaining student questions about the residency application process. In the second offering of the residency boot camp, students were invited to complete a voluntary pre- and post-assessment of their perceived readiness for residency interviews. The activity has evolved based on student feedback to focus predominately on the group and 1:1 interviews. FindingsSince starting the activity in 2013, 14 of the 21 students (67%) from the class of 2014, 16 of the 25 students (64%) from the class of 2015 and 24 of the 26 students (92%) from the class of 2016 that applied for residency training participated in the residency boot camp activity. For the Fall 2014 offering where a survey was conducted, the pre- and post-survey instrument used a Likert Scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” (score of 1) to “strongly agree” (score of “5”). Discussionand conclusions: Simulated exercises such as a residency boot camp can expose student pharmacists to important interview readiness skills. Student pharmacists involved in this activity demonstrated a perceived positive effect of such activities.