THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATIONAL RESIDENT MATCH PROGRAM RANK AND PERCEIVED PERFORMANCE IN AN EMERGENCY-MEDICINE RESIDENCY

A nonconcurrent prospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate if National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) rank developed using multiva riate regression followed by consensus group activity is associated wi th perceived general performance during emergency medicine residency. All residents graduating from a university hospital based residency pr ogram between 1990 to 1993 were ranked by university faculty private a ttendings, charge nurses, and a clerk. Each evaluator was asked to ord er (from strongest to weakest) a deck of cards that contained only eac h graduate's name and picture. NRMP ranks were scaled to adjust for di fferences in each year's match list length. Evaluators were unaware of the graduates' NRMP ranks, Agreement among raters was analyzed using Kendall's coefficient of concordance, Perceived ranks were compared wi th actual NRMP ranks using the Spearman correlation procedure, Twenty graduates were evaluated by eight different individuals, yielding 160 pairs of ranks, There was moderately strong agreement among evaluators about the relative strength of the 20 residents (W = 0.67, P < .001). The association of perceived rank with NRMP rank was much greater tha n that expected by chance (r(s) = .35, P < .0001). Applicants with bet ter NRMP ranks were perceived as stron ger residents, which supports t he strategy of using formal statistical modelling followed by consensu s group activity as a method of generating NRMP rank lists. (Copyright (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company)