Specific Interventions to Increase Women's Interest in Surgery

Interest in and Perceived Barriers to Flexible-Track Residencies in General Surgery: A National Survey of Residents and Program Directors

“…Our study also extends the work of Snyder et al, 19 who surveyed students at 10 United States medical schools in 2007-2008 and revealed that 22% of male students and 41% of female students would be more interested in matching in surgery if flexible training were an option. Such support among future potential surgical trainees is critical, but medical student support alone, without strong support among existing surgical trainees and PDs, cannot change long-established surgical norms.…”

“…17 Moreover, medical students and surgical residents are interested in this possibility of flexible training in general surgery. 18,19 Two recent presidential addresses, at the New England Surgical Society and at the Southern Surgical Association, have urged surgical residency programs to respond to this interest by introducing more flexibility into residency training. 20,21 Consistent with the push for greater flexibility in surgical training, in the summer of 2009, the American Board of Surgery issued a new leave policy stating that general surgery residents may complete their clinical training over 6 years, thereby allowing residents to take up to 12 months of leave during their first 4 post graduate years.…”

Ethnic and Gender Diversity in Hand Surgery Trainees

“…In one study, Park et al 42 showed that the lack of shared or part-time practice options deterred women from surgical training. Snyder et al 43 asserted that approximately half of women would have been more interested in pursuing a surgical field had there been a greater number of female role models. As for minority trainees, Aagaard et al 44 demonstrated that the amount of ethnic diversity present in a program and the degree of minority recruitment efforts were important.…”

Eliminating Mentors in Favor of Collaborators: Review and Challenge of Current Mentorship Literature

“…Women perceive more difficulty in finding mentors than men (14). A lack of female mentors (32), and even female role models in general (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40), is implicated as the primary barrier to advancement and identification of mentors for female trainees.…”

“…Time spent mentoring (5) Training within a culture that supports mentoring (10,17) Feedback mechanism for mentors (18) Mentoring that takes into specific concerns of underrepresented groups (29,34,40) Negative Lack of formal training for potential mentors…”