Data indicates that medical students consult the social media platform Instagram to learn about residency programs. What type of material can students take away from those interactions?
Research by Elizabeth Hogue, a third-year medical student at the Medical University of South Carolina, sheds some light on how plastic surgery residency programs use their Instagram accounts and how useful they might be to medical students who are doing residency application research. Hogue presented her research during the 2023 AMA Poster Showcase.
Programs are using the platform
At the time of her research, Hogue found that 84 of 88 accredited plastic surgery programs had Instagram accounts. In the months following her research, three other programs created accounts. During the span in which she monitored all program-related Instagram accounts, nearly 6,000 posts were created by the 84 programs in total.
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“With the introduction of virtual interviews during the pandemic, social media has become an even more useful tool for residency programs to advertise themselves to applicants,” Hogue said in an interview at the Poster Showcase, held as part of the 2023 AMA Interim Meeting.
From an applicant vantage point, that information can be vital.
“With plastic surgery, applicants are encouraged to apply to every single program,” she said. “You simply cannot visit them all. You have to pick and choose where you are going to visit or do an away rotation. Even if you are doing an in-person interview, it’s unrealistic to think you can go to every place—they might be very far apart. That’s where social media can play a role in deciding where you will visit in person.”
A view of life in a program
Hogue—who conducted this research with her mentor, Fernando A. Herrera, MD, a hand and reconstructive surgeon at the Medical University of South Carolina—grouped posts into a roster of categories that included topics such as lifestyle, research, mentorship, global health and surgical procedures. Of the list, lifestyle posts were most common (21%) followed by surgical procedures (11%), research (6%) and mentorship (5%).
Knowing what life looks like outside the residency program via those lifestyle posts can at least start the ball rolling on your program research, Hogue said.
“In this age of focusing on resident culture and wellness, things like personality types, activities that residents are doing—a lot of these Instagram pages would show their residents’ hobbies and things they are doing outside of the hospital,” she said. “By looking at these pages, you can get a vibe of the residency program before you interview or do an away rotation.”
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Instagram is only one resource
When it came to posts about the types of surgeries residents were doing, Hogue acknowledged that what is shown on an Instagram account may not be representative of the daily workload. Because of that, what you see on Instagram “is unlikely to play a role in your final decision” when it comes time to submit your Match rank order list.
Still, as a factor to decide where to apply or where to do away rotations or even where to interview when you get further along in the Match process, there is some utility.
“While it might be superficial, Instagram is a tool to learn,” said Hogue, who hopes to specialize in plastic surgery. “You might look at a program that promotes their global health opportunities, and as an applicant that might be something that is interesting to you, so you might want to reach out to them and ask them about it. It’s a great way to start the conversation and connect.”
