title: The perception and impact of changes in the recruitment and assessment of orthodontic specialty registrars (StR)
Creators: name: Sia, Jye Yen
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2015

description: Aims: 1) To assess interviewers‟ and interviewees‟ perceptions and experiences of Multi-Station Interview (MSI) for selection of Orthodontic Specialty Registrars (StRs) to UK regional Orthodontic training programmes; 2) To assess Trainers‟ and Trainees‟ perceptions and experiences of National Recruitment (NR); 3) To explore trainers‟ and trainees‟ perceptions and experiences of WorkplaceBased Assessments (WBAs) in Orthodontic StR training in England. Design: Cross-sectional questionnaire based qualitative survey. Methods: The study was conducted in three phases. Phase I involved interviewers and interviewees attending National Recruitment for Orthodontic StRs in May 2012. Phase II was conducted in August 2013 and, involved the trainees who had been recruited through the first National Recruitment and their trainers. Phase III was conducted in August 2013 and involved trainees who had started their training in 2011 or 2012 under the new curriculum. Two questionnaires were designed for each phase, one for trainers and one for trainees. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics and frequency distributions. Results: Phase 1: 88% (36/41) of interviewers and all interviewees (83/83) completed the questionnaires. Of the interviewers, 56% were male; their mean age was 45.5 years (95%CI 43.0, 48.0) and the mean time that they had been a consultant was 11.4 years (95%CI 8.7, 13.1). The interviewers thought that the interviews were fair, tested an appropriate range of competences, selected the best candidates to be appointed and would appoint the same people if repeated. Of the interviewees, 61% were female; their mean age was 28.9 years (95%CI 28.2, 29.6) and their mean time since they qualified as dentist was 5.6 years (95%CI 4.9, 6.3) with 78% qualifying from a UK university. The interviewees preferred MSI format, considered the questions easy to understand and thought that the MSI was fairer than traditional interviews. Phase II: 53% (96/180) of trainers and 73% (19/26) of the trainees completed the questionnaires. For these trainers, 53% were male and the mean time that they had been a consultant was 13.6 years (95%CI 11.97, 15.20). Of the trainers who answered the questionnaire, 76% had not been involved in the NR interview process, 81% of them agreed that trainers need some choice as to who is appointed to their unit; 73% agreed that the previous recruitment system gave them more ownership and responsibility for their trainees; 66% would rather have the post empty for a year, than accept a weak trainee. For the trainees, the majority of them (81%) agreed that the NR meant that they did not have to miss out on other job possibilities whilst waiting for the one they wanted; all the trainees agreed that the NR reduced the time-off work they needed for interviews and visits. Of the trainees who completed the questionnaire, 58% agreed that NR increased their choice about where they applied to train; however, 8 (42%) felt pressurised to preference more units than they would have applied to previously; 13 (68%) would like to have been interviewed by their prospective trainer(s) but 12 (63%) would not have preferred to apply through the previous regional recruitment process. The vast majority (83%) of the trainees were allocated to one of their top three preferences and 67% of them would rank the units in the same order again. Only about half (52.6%) of the trainees visited units that they preferenced although 90% of the trainees agreed that visiting the units helped them rank their preferences. Almost all of them, (95%), were happy with their allocated unit(s). Phase III: 42% (76/180) of trainers and 62% (46/74) of the trainees completed the questionnaires. Of the trainers, the mean time that they had been a consultant was 12.8 years (95%CI 10.98, 14.66). The gender of the trainers was equally distributed. About half of the trainers spent 0.25 PA per month undertaking WBAs for their trainee(s) although 88% of the trainers did not have any PAs in their job plan for WBAs. 55% of them used less than 25% of their SPAs sessions for WBAs. However, 17% of the trainers had to use more than 75% of their SPAs session to conduct WBAs. Of the 74 trainees iii | P a g e who answered the questionnaire, 74% were female. In District General Hospitals, 91% of the trainees arranged their own WBAs. On average, trainees spent an hour per month undertaking WBAs. The mean number of completed WBAs per year was 12 (SD 4.2; 95%CI 10.7, 13.7) with the mode being 10 WBAs. Almost all trainees, (33/34) had more than 80% of their WBAs undertaken by consultants. Most of the trainees, 41% (14/34) had 3 trainers to undertake their WBAs. Conclusions: 1) Interviewers were positive about the selection of candidates, fairness and conduct of the multi-station interview format. Interviewees were very positive about the organisation and fairness of the multi-station interview format. 2) Overall there was a statistically significant difference in trainers‟ and trainees‟ perception of the NR. 3) Overall there was no statistically significant difference in trainers‟ and trainees‟ perception of the WBAs, which were acceptable to the trainers and trainees.