Taking Stock of Surgeons’ Integrity and Vitality: Why the “Three A’s” No Longer Tell the Whole Story

Excerpt

In her commentary “A Fire In Our Hearts: Passion and the Art of Surgery,” Dr. Eva Singletary calls on faculty surgeons to share our inspiration as surgeons with residents and students. Her review of the surgical trainee recruitment and retention literature discloses an attrition rate in surgery that exceeds other specialties. What deters students from choosing a career in surgery, and why do many students who have chosen surgery change their mind, rejecting not just a particular program but the specialty as a whole? Long work hours and lack of balanced lifestyle are often cited factors, but surprisingly the 80-h workweek restriction has failed to improve retention. Dr. Singletary found reports of only two interventions that helped improve surgery resident experience, and both were targeted at better management of workload. Adding physician extenders to the surgical team has been helpful in some institutions. One program described success decreasing residents’ rounding time as a result of hands-on faculty instruction to improve efficiency. …