Cross-institutional stability of behavioral criteria desirable for success in radiology residency.
Certain dimensions of job performance are critical to radiology residents, and several of these dimensions are noncognitive in nature (eg, interpersonal skills, conscientiousness, recognition of limits). Our initial study examined these factors in only one residency program, so the general nature of these dimensions must be documented. The current study was a cross institutional analysis involving 31 faculty radiologists at three separate academic institutions (82% of total faculty) who participated in a critical incident interview to obtain data on important resident behaviors and attitudes. The resultant 172 incidents were sorted by two physicians into the six categories (knowledge, technical skills, attitudes toward self and [both recognitions of limits and confidence in abilities], conscientiousness, curiosity, and interpersonal skills); inter-rater reliability was 92%, kappa = .89. A Chi square analysis revealed similar distributions of incidents across categories (x2 12 = 17.22) among the three institutions, supporting the general reliability of these dimensions across the institutions studied. Further, the distributions of these incidents demonstrated that the noncognitive dimensions again were given considerable importance by faculty radiologists. For example, more than 40% of the critical incidents pertained to the conscientiousness dimension. These findings documented the generalization of these behavioral dimensions across several sites and support their importance in selection and evaluation of residents.
Altmaier
E
E
University of Iowa, Iowa City.
Smith
W L
WL
Wood
P
P
Ross
R
R
Montgomery
W J
WJ
Klattee
E
E
Imray
T
T
Shields
J
J
Franken
E A
EA
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001519:Behavior; D002983:Clinical Competence; D007396:Internship and Residency; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D011871:Radiology / Q000193:education*; D012577:Schools, Medical