Selection by design: Using job analysis to guide the selection of postgraduate pharmacy residents

Purpose: To help ensure that we were accurately and consistently evaluating applicants to our postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) pharmacy residency program, we performed a job analysis to inform a redesign of our selection process.

Summary: A diverse panel of subject matter experts from our program was convened to develop a task inventory; a list of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics necessary for success in our program; and behavioral snapshots representing especially strong or weak resident performance (ie, critical incidents). After achieving a priori thresholds of consensus, these items were used to augment our application screening instrument (eg, development of anchored rating scales), build an online supplemental application consisting of a personality test and situational judgment test, develop a work sample consisting of a patient case presentation, and enhance the structure of our interviews (eg, by asking a consistent pattern of questions for all candidates). Preceptors reported that the redesigned process was more organized, easier to complete, and facilitated greater rating consistency.

Conclusion: Job analysis represents an approach to designing selection processes that are more valid, reliable, transparent, and fair. Based on our experiences, recommendations for those who are considering changes to their selection process are provided.