The Influence of Social Media on Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship Applicant Recruitment

Background: The shift from in-person to virtual interviews for medical trainees since the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in residency and fellowship program social media (SoMe) accounts. The views of PEM applicants and PEM fellowship program directors (PDs) toward program SoMe are unknown. Methods: Surveys evaluating PEM fellowship applicants and PEM fellowship PD attitudes and perceptions of program SoMe accounts were reviewed and approved by the AAP Section of Emergency Medicine (SOEM) Subcommittee of Fellowship Director's Survey Committee. The survey link was distributed to 90 PEM fellowship PDs via the AAP SOEM Subcommittee of Fellowship Directors listserv, who distributed the survey to matched fellows from the 2024 NRMP fellowship match cycle. Data from the 2 surveys were analyzed via simple proportions and descriptive statistics. Results: Twenty-eight percent of applicants (56/200) and 34% of PEM Fellowship PDs (31/90) responded. Most applicants used SoMe (98%), with the majority using Instagram (83%). Seventy-nine percent of applicants reported visiting the SoMe accounts of some or all programs they applied to. Applicants reported minimal influence of SoMe on their decision to apply (73% responding negatively) or rank programs (77% responding negatively). Most programs have a fellowship or division SoMe presence (71%), predominantly on Instagram (91%). Of fellowship-specific SoMe, 76% were created in the past 3 years, with the primary purpose of fellowship recruitment (70%). Almost half of the PD respondents felt that SoMe had little to no influence on applicants' decision to apply or rank a program, with 46% and 49% respectively responding negatively. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that SoMe is a popular way for PEM fellowship applicants to engage with programs before applying, though it may be less impactful in applicants' decisions to apply to or match rank a program. Fellowship PDs can use these data to tailor content toward more meaningful recruitment efforts.