THE EFFECTS OF PROGRAMMATIC CHANGE ON RESIDENT MOTIVATION

Background. Critical to any resident's success is that individual's co mmitment and desire to succeed. Rarely do surgical educators consider the impact of a programmatic change on a resident's motivation. Recent ly much attention has centered around the impact of IL-372 on medical practice. In this article we instead focus on the impact that a progra mmatic change can have on resident motivation and use IL-372 as an exa mple. Methods. This article is a review of literature on motivation re levant to surgical education. Results. Motivation theory can help surg ical educators understand resident (1) choice to engage in an activity , (2) the quantity of effort someone invests, and (3) the willingness to persist at tasks. It can also help educators identify and understan d positive and negative behavioral reactions that can occur when there is a mismatch between a resident's belief about his or her ability an d expectations in the operating room. Conclusions. This article conclu des with a number of strategies to improve resident motivation.