Reliability and acceptability of a five-station multiple mini-interview model for residency program recruitment

BACKGROUND: Standard interviews are used by most residency programs in the United States for assessment of aptitude of the non-cognitive competencies, but variability of interviewer skill, interviewer bias, interviewer leniency or stringency, and context specificity limit reliability. AIM: To investigate reliability and acceptability of five-station multiple mini-interview (MMI) model for resident selection into an internal medicine residency program in the United States. SETTING: One independent academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred and thirty-seven applicants and 17 faculty interviewers. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Five, 10-min MMI stations with five different interviewers blinded to the candidate's records and one traditional 20-min interview with the program director. Candidates were rated on two items: interpersonal and communication skills, and overall performance. PROGRAM EVALUATION: Generalizability data showed that the reliability of our process was high (>0.9). The results of anonymous surveys demonstrated that both applicants and interviewers consider the MMI as a fair and more effective tool to evaluate non-cognitive traits, and prefer the MMI to standard interviews. DISCUSSION: The MMI process for residency interviews can generate reliable interview results using only five stations, and it is acceptable and preferred over standard interview modalities by the applicants and faculty members of one US residency program.