Graduating Plastic Surgery Residents and Their Attending Mentors: Do We See Eye to Eye?

Purpose:

                Neither the factors influencing graduating residents as they search for employment nor the advice of their mentors in this process have been elicited. We aim to directly elucidate these measures through a survey of attending surgeons and senior residents.

Methods:

Members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, senior residents, and recent graduates were identified and sent a survey on the topic of employment experience in plastic surgery.   Responses were analyzed with p-values of less than 0.05 deemed significant.

Results:

                Of 616 respondents, 43(7.0%) were senior residents and 573 (93.0%) were attending surgeons. When compared, residents’ desired practice profile was significantly different (p <0.0001) compared to attendings.

                Senior residents and attendings ranked the factors that they will, or should, consider when graduating residency. Residents ranked location(p=0.0030), exact case mix desired(p=0.0131), and desire or lack of desire to teach residents (p=0.0329) as more important than attendings felt they should be. They also ranked time frame of guaranteed salary (p=0.0178) and incentive structure (p=0.0069) as less important than attendings felt they should be.

                When compared with senior attendings, attendings with less than 10 years of experience ranked location (p=0.0215) and desire or lack of desire to teach residents (p=0.0497) as significantly more important. They ranked time frame of guaranteed salary (p=0.0376) and benefits (p=0.0008) as significantly less important.

Senior residents and attendings then ranked the factors that they would, or did, consider when choosing to maintain or change a current employment. Compared to junior attendings, residents ranked location (p=0.0354) as more important. Compared to senior attendings, residents ranked location (p=0.0004) as more important and earning potential (p=0.0037), benefits (p=0.0041), and incentive structure (p=0.0265) as less important.  Compared to senior attendings, junior attendings ranked location (p=0.0130) and desire to teach (p=0304) as more important. All other rankings among groups did not differ significantly.

Conclusions:

                Residents and their attending mentors differ significantly in perceived importance of employment factors. Residents value location and desire to teach uniformly as more important than attendings, who more valued benefits and incentives. Residents’ values corresponded more to the values of junior rather than senior attendings. To find professionally and personally satisfying employment after graduation, senior residents should carefully seek mentorship with compatible advisors as many attendings may hold discordant values and opinions.