Reference letters for subspecialty medicine residency positions: are they valuable for decision-making? Results from a Canadian study.

Letters of recommendation from elective rotations are of the poorest quality and such rotations should not be pursued for the sole purpose of obtaining a letter. The low quality of elective letters leads to the recommendation that writers should decline to write them, programs should not require them and trainees should not request them. Program directors write the highest quality letters and should be a resource for faculty development. Clinical supervisors can use the 5-point composite endpoint as a guide when writing letters for applicants.