The West Midlands Matching Scheme 2000: a survey of participant satisfaction and outcomes
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Daniel J Smith; Georgina Selby
- Source
- Medical education. 37(4)
- Subject
- Response rate (survey)
Scheme (programming language)
Matching (statistics)
Operations research
Career Choice
Education, Medical
West midlands
business.industry
Attitude of Health Personnel
Significant group
Personnel selection
Internship and Residency
Sample (statistics)
General Medicine
Personal Satisfaction
Education
England
Order (business)
Statistics
Medicine
Humans
business
Personnel Selection
computer
computer.programming_language
- Language
- ISSN
- 0308-0110
Context The West Midlands Matching Scheme has been in operation since 1999 and is one of a number of schemes used for the allocation of pre-registration house officer positions in the UK. Method and Results A questionnaire was distributed amongst candidates applying to the scheme in 2000. A response rate of 73·7% was obtained (160 replies from a sample population of 217). Half the responders reported to be dissatisfied with the explanation of the matching scheme given. A total of 66·6% were satisfied with the scheme being run via the Internet and E-mail. For 6-month positions in medicine, 85% of the candidates were happy with the job they had received. The figures for surgical jobs were similar and for rotations even higher. However, 23·8% of the sample was missing one or two jobs at the end of the matching process. This figure was still high when non-responders were taken into account. This group was not happy with the way in which the remaining jobs were distributed to them (71% dissatisfied). Conclusion Although the matching scheme matched a high proportion of responders to jobs they were satisfied with, there was a significant group without jobs who were unhappy with the scheme. Some of those with jobs were also dissatisfied with the jobs they had received. Both problems should be addressed in future schemes. Further work in this area should examine the characteristics of the group without jobs and look at the success of other schemes in order to determine the optimal way in which to allocate PRHO jobs.