The process of selecting interns: from the unknown to the unknown

Each autumn program directors begin anew the task of recruiting and selecting housestaff. Tradition and common sense are the main guides of this process, there being little data regarding the most useful information to collect about applicants or the best method of ranking candidates. It is difficult for selection committees to evaluate their work since internship performance itself is difficult to assess and since the relationship between internship and later performance in pediatrics is unknown. Thus, selection decisions, presumed to be important to both pediatric programs and their housestaff, are based on uncertainty at every step. A literature review and a recent survey of directors of 61 moderate-sized and large pediatric training programs has highlighted several problems in the current situation: