Team Process Exercise: An Evaluative Admissions Tool

The individual interview has long been among the primary methods of selecting candidates for most health professional education programs. But recognizing that individual interviews are not necessarily predictive of an applicant's ability to interact successfully in teams, the Duke University Physician Assistant Program developed a process for observing applicant behavior in a group setting. The Team Process Exercise (TPE) is utilized, in addition to two 20-minute individual interviews, to more fully assess the applicant's skills in interpersonal interaction. Social skills and effective personal interaction, as well as the ability to function well within a team, are critical for success in today's health care environment. While applicants with dysfunctional team skills may be quite successful in individual interviews, they may reveal problematic behavior within the dynamic of a group discussion. We describe the TPE—a 15-minute discussion of an ethical problem among 4 or 5 candidates, followed by 15 minutes of analysis of the group's success by the members themselves. We also discuss our experience with the process and include sample scenarios and evaluation of 4 hypothetical candidates. The Team Process Exercise is one of several factors considered by the Duke University PA Program Admissions Committee in evaluating each candidate.