Pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation: Fellowship website content comprehensiveness evaluation

1 Introduction

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) offers various unique fellowship training experiences for physicians to further enhance their clinical skills and specialize in their interests. Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) is among these fellowships offered within PM&R, becoming certified as a subspecialty by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in 2003 [1]. PRM specializes in the care of congenital and childhood diseases, with a focus on improving function.

For prospective applicants, the first point of contact for gaining information about a fellowship such as PRM is often its website. In an increasingly virtual world that extensively utilizes social media, it is important to have accessible and comprehensive information for website viewers [2, 4, 5]. PM&R residents and prospective PRM fellowship applicants utilize a fellowship program’s website to acquire important information about the characteristics of a respective program. The program’s curriculum, faculty, rotations, compensation, benefits, facilities, and accommodations are among some of the main factors that allow prospective applicants to differentiate and select programs during their fellowship application cycle [3, 5]. Because fellowships may require applicants to relocate for a specified amount of time or potentially halt their current employment, accessing information becomes increasingly important for applicants to determine whether a program suits their career goals, objectives, and lifestyle.

The recent pandemic has also placed an even stronger dependency on online platforms to convey thorough information to applicants [4]. As many fellowship programs’ interviews remain within the virtual space out of concerns for safety and accessibility, the importance of strong online platforms continues to increase. The goal of this study was to provide a qualitative evaluation of PRM fellowship program websites in the United States and identify potential areas for improvement. This study can aid fellowship programs to strengthen areas of their website void or limited in important information. This can improve the experience for prospective applicants, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of a program and potentially for more informed decisions. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate PRM websites for their comprehensiveness and provide recommendations for improvement.

2 Methods

A cross-sectional analysis of 23 PRM fellowship websites listed on the Fellowship Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA) were evaluated qualitatively. Current literature helped identify the 43 pieces of information that applicants most commonly seek when evaluating a fellowship program [4]. The criteria refer to the factors that interested applicants typically utilize in making decisions for their fellowship choices. Studied criteria focused on the website accessibility, education and research, recruitment, and workplace support and employment. Table 1 features a complete list of all evaluated criteria.

Two authors reviewed each program’s website to ensure thoroughness and accuracy. Excel was used to mark the presence or absence of the variables for each program’s website on FREIDA. A Cohen’s kappa was conducted to determine the agreement between the two website evaluators. It was determined that there was a near-perfect agreement between the evaluators with a K = 0.89.

At the time of analysis, 23 active PRM fellowship programs were identified. Analysis of website accessibility from FREIDA showed that 30% (7/23) of programs had a direct link to the PRM fellowship page, whereas 52% (12/23) provided a link to the departmental website. The remaining four programs (17%) provided a link that was nonfunctional; these were analyzed by manual search on Google. All programs included a program description and program email address for further contact on their website. Only two fellowship programs provided information on selection process and expected case load (2/23, 9%). In the education and research category, the criteria with the most accessibility on a program’s website were research opportunities and requirements with 96% (22/23), followed by rotation schedule and work hours with 78% (18/23). In regard to recruitment, the program director or coordinator contact information was included in 100% (23/23) of websites while the recent board pass rates were reported on 13% (3/23). For incentive information, the salary was mentioned on 78% (18/23) of the programs’ websites. In terms of wellness, the harassment policy was mentioned on 13% (3/23). Table 1 provides a full list of evaluated criteria.

Criteria that were identified to be under a 50% mark for all 23 programs include education resources available to fellows, research stipend, moonlighting and elective opportunities, information for international medical graduates, mentorships opportunities, fellow wellness, information about recent career options from previous fellows, housing options, and local attractions.

4 Discussion

Upon evaluation of the PRM fellowship websites, it was determined that the websites had limited information on multiple criteria. Nearly all PRM fellowship websites can improve the comprehensiveness of information about their programs for prospective applicants.

Ease of accessibility of information is important for applicants to help guide their search in determining a program. Many programs had nonfunctional links or multistep links which can contribute to worsening the experience for applicants who must make additional efforts to access valuable information. Without efficient access, a prospective applicant cannot gather information necessary to making a properly informed decision, hindering their ability to find a well-suited program for their specific needs [3, 5]. In addition, application cycles are busy for both applicants and programs. If programs can improve the comprehensiveness of fellowship websites, this could reduce the number of emails that applicants must send and programs must respond to, thus increasing efficiency.

There were limitations to this study. Fellowship website data were compiled and analyzed in November 2022. This cross-sectional analysis did not include possible changes to the website data since then. Programs also may face institutional limitations or policies that impact their ability to feature information which may lead to variability between program websites.

Recent literature has suggested that updating fellowship program websites is a great solution to combat obstacles created by the virtual process that has been exacerbated by COVID-19 [2, 4, 5]. As fellowship programs continue to meet the needs of applicants, this analysis can help identify areas of improvement on their online platforms and further enhance the transparency of the match process. Adding any information regarding general program qualities, educational and research opportunities, recruitment, and workplace support and employment data would be beneficial for each PRM fellowship. Programs are encouraged to review their respective websites and address any areas where information is limited. Additionally, programs are encouraged to ensure their website links are working yearly. Improving the websites will better enable prospective applicants to understand PRM fellowships and choose a program that they feel best meets their career objectives.