The challenges of having children during surgical residency may have significant workforce implications. A deeper understanding is critical to prevent attrition and to continue recruiting talented students. This survey characterizes these issues to help design interventions to support childbearing residents.

The objective of this study was to identify leading practices to promote environmentally friendly and efficient efforts in the provision of surgical health care. Health care is the second leading contributor to waste in the United States. Despite widespread enthusiasm for "going green" in the US economy, little substantive information is available to the medical community, to our knowledge. We explore safe and efficient strategies for hospitals and providers to protect the environment while delivering high-quality care. We performed a systematic review of the literature using relevant PubMed search terms and surveyed a panel of hospital managers and chief executive officers of health care organizations pursuing green initiatives. Recommendations were itemized and reviewed by a 7-member panel to generate a consensus agreement. We identified 43 published articles and used interview data from the panel. The following 5 green recommendations for surgical practices were identified: operating room waste reduction and segregation, reprocessing of single-use medical devices, environmentally preferable purchasing, energy consumption management, and pharmaceutical waste management. The medical community has a large opportunity to implement green practices in surgical units. These practices can provide significant benefits to the health care community and to the environment. Additional research and advocacy are needed to further explore green practices in health care.

Sustained use of the checklist was observed with continued improvements in process measures and reductions in 30-day surgical complications almost 2 years after a structured implementation effort that demonstrated marked, short-term reductions in harm. The sustained effect occurred despite the absence of continued oversight by the research team, indicating the important role that local leadership and local champions play in the success of quality improvement initiatives, especially in resource-limited settings.