Identification of Warning Signs During Selection of Surgical Trainees

Different Approaches to Selection of Surgical Trainees in the European Union 

“…Most selection systems are oriented towards nding the top candidates, but an important consideration when selecting to training positions is also to identify unsuitable candidates to mitigate the multiple detrimental effects of enrolling a potentially problematic trainee and future colleague (13,27). Trainees that need remediation will inevitably affect patient safety, work climate, and are costly for the department (28)(29)(30)(31).…”

“…Trainees that need remediation will inevitably affect patient safety, work climate, and are costly for the department (28)(29)(30)(31). On the one hand, local selection processes are particularly susceptible in that they de facto narrow the candidate eld with an increased risk for selecting a person with a slow or dysfunctional learning curve or hazardous traits (13,27). On the other hand, prolonged exposure of a candidate to multiple senior colleagues and members of other professions in a variety of settings would result in deeper familiarity and offer greater opportunities to detect both unsuitability and tness for the job (13,32).…”

“…On the one hand, local selection processes are particularly susceptible in that they de facto narrow the candidate eld with an increased risk for selecting a person with a slow or dysfunctional learning curve or hazardous traits (13,27). On the other hand, prolonged exposure of a candidate to multiple senior colleagues and members of other professions in a variety of settings would result in deeper familiarity and offer greater opportunities to detect both unsuitability and tness for the job (13,32). Hazardous traits may be detected through validated tools or clinical job performance if appropriate attention is paid, albeit currently not performed to the best of the authors knowledge (13,27,33,34).…”

“…However, support for the locum system was quite strong as it was deemed appropriate to evaluate a candidate's t for the job. A common theme for those not entirely satis ed with the current system concerned the need to apply structured and validated assessment tools as they had experienced unsuitable candidates slipping through the system (13). A trainee usually receives a permanent position in the department when training is completed.…”

Different approaches to selection of surgical trainees in the European Union

“…Sweden was selected as an archetypical case of a decentralized selection system. Data on selection procedures in Sweden was obtained via available literature [ 10 ] together with semi-structured interviews with 13 experienced surgeons, as previously described [ 13 ] and knowledge within the research group. Oral informed consent as per Swedish Ethical Review Authority (case number 2016–1050) was obtained from all informants, who were informed of the purpose of the study, that their contributions would be analysed and can come to comprise part of published results of the study, and that they would not be cited by name in any public documents.…”