Selecting individuals into the future surgeon workforce in the United States comes with an array of inefficiencies and high costs. Traditional selection methods - typically consisting of test score cutoffs and unstructured interviews can be inequitable, costly, inconsistent, and poorly predictive of later success in the role. Given the high attrition rates associated with these high-stakes and demanding roles, more rigor and implementation of evidence-backed approaches from applied psychology are warranted.


This presentation describes a ten-year effort of integrating data and approaches from the organizational psychology literature into selection systems for surgeons across the United States. While incorporating assessments such as structured interviews, personality assessments, and situational judgment tests have successfully enhanced efficiency, reduced remediation and attrition, and improved equity, these efforts have brought with them an array of lessons learned regarding barriers to integrating applied psychology into the healthcare selection realm. This presentation provides an overview of the most common barriers experienced during this ten-year experience integrating these two industries and the strategies we undertook to address them, with the hopes of aiding other practitioners similarly intending to integrate approaches from applied psychology into a new field or industry.