Jm. Hardacre et al., General surgery and fellowship training: Opinions of surgical intern applicants and fellowship directors, SURGERY, 127(1), 2000, pp. 14-18
Background. Given the pressures that exist today to modify surgical trainin
g programs, this study was undertaken to ascertain the opinions of surgical
intern applicants and fellowship program directors with regard to the leng
th of surgical training.
Methods. Surveys were sent to fourth-year medical students who were applyin
g for categorical surgical training during a 2-year period at a single univ
ersity medical center and to fellowship program directors in 6 surgical sub
specialties.
Results. Ninety-three percent of the applicants planned to pursue fellowshi
p training Sixty-eight percent of the applicants did not feel that 5 years
of general surgery are necessary before beginning a fellowship. Seventy-one
percent of the applicants indicated that they would be willing to "short t
rack" into a subspecialty to reduce training time. Virtually all fellowship
directors in pediatric surgery (94 %), transplantation surgery (94 %), and
oncologic surgery (100 %)felt that 5 years of general surgery training are
necessary before entering a fellowship. Significantly fewer fellowship dir
ectors in vascular surgery (53 %) cardiothoracic surgery (30 %) and plastic
surgery (17 %) felt that 5 years of general surgery are essential before b
eginning a fellowship (P less than or equal to .001).
Conclusions. For some general surgery subspecialties, a shortened, integrat
ed training program may be desirable from the point of view of both trainee
s and fellowship directors. Vascular, cardiothoracic, and plastic surgery a
ppear to be those subspecialties that are most amenable to such programs.