Recruitment Videos Spotlight DFM Residency Programs

Expanding on the high-quality resident recruitment information it offers online and in print, the Department of Family Medicine (DFM) recently completed a set of site-specific videos to introduce prospective applicants to each of its residency programs.

Each video is approximately three minutes long. The complete set will be posted on the DFM's Web site and played at recruitment fairs.

Although each site identified the specific messages it wanted to convey about its program, the videos follow a similar structure. For example, each video features one or two first-year residents, a recent graduate, and the program director or faculty member, all speaking in their own words about what the program has to offer.

In addition, each video shows the different locations that residents encounter in the course of a day, such as clinics, hospitals, program events, and the community.

According to one of the residency program coordinators involved with the project, the benefit of video is that it makes the resident experience more real for prospective applicants. "Video can capture true clinical interaction, as well as all of the other things a resident would do-personally and professionally-in a normal work day," said Michelle Grosch, MPA, education coordinator for the Madison residency.

"It's also very valuable to hear the residents' own words," she added. "We couldn't have written a script that hit on the points as well as they did."

The video project was originally conceived by former Madison Residency Program Director William Schwab, MD, Statewide Education Committee Chair Melissa Stiles, MD, and Media Specialist Matt Fleming.

Jeff Lenzen and Don Cady, a video producer and videographer at UW Health Marketing and Public Affairs, worked with representatives from each program site to plan and shoot the videos.

The project was part of the DFM's ongoing commitment to produce professional recruitment materials for its residency programs. The DFM plans to reshoot the videos every three years to ensure that the content in them is fresh and relevant for new applicants.