Abstract
Background/Objectives Entrance into specialist medical and surgical training programs in Australia is a challenging prospect for trainee medical officers (TMO), and entrance requirements are typically reflected in a curriculum vitae (CV). The objective of this study is to determine the proportion of medical and surgical specialty training programmes in Australia and New Zealand that publish publicly available standardised CV scoring criteria, and what is the relative weighting of research (publications, presentations, and higher academic degrees).
Methods All Australian and New Zealand medical and surgical specialties, outlined by the Australian Medical Association, were included, and their college, society, and faculty websites were searched for publicly available standardised CV.
Results We report that 14/47 Australian medical and surgical specialty training programs publish standardised CV scoring criteria, and 14/14 allocate points towards research (mean; 42.5%, median: 45.5%; range: 5% – 61.9%). Whilst the ANZAN training programme did not allocate a maximum point allocation towards research for the 2023 intake, (Maximum CV point allocation for all criteria: 25), the 2024 intake is limited to 11/20 (55%) points towards research. The weighting of a PhD has reduced from 5 points (2023) to 3 points (2024).
Conclusion The relative weighting of research for the ANZAN standardised CV scoring criteria has been reduced for the 2024 intake. The evaluation of the future impact of the research cited in CVs may further inform the applicant selection process for neurology training.
