Are Vascular Surgery Trainees Satisfied and are They Using the Right Factors to Choose a Training Program?

Background: Medical students and residents often evaluate training sites in vascular surgery with minimal exposure to those programs. We sought to identify factors associated with vascular surgery trainee satisfaction in relation to their current work environment and how they made their rank list.

Methods: All integrated residents and fellows currently in United States vascular training programs were queried using an anonymous electronic survey for variables of their current training environment, factors that influenced their rank order list, and satisfaction. Questions were graded on a Likert scale. Continuous, ordinal, and categorical variables were respectively analyzed using the two-sample t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test/Wilcoxon rank sum test, and Fisher's exact test.

Results: A total of 166 of 517 (32%) trainees completed the survey with equal distribution across postgraduate years. Respondents reported high rates of satisfaction with their training program overall (84%), including 88% (n = 83) of residents and 78% (n = 56) of fellows. Several work environment variables were associated with both resident and fellow satisfaction including program-funded trips for conferences and presentations (P = 0.027 for residents; P = 0.001 for fellows), diversity of operative cases (P = 0.024; P < 0.001), perception of a strong supportive social network at the hospital (P = 0.006; P = 0.001), and perception of appreciation by attending surgeons (P < 0.001; P < 0.001). Fellows who felt appreciated by nursing staff (P = 0.047), ancillary staff (P = 0.013), and patients were more likely to be satisfied (P = 0.011); however, this was not true for integrated residents. Social outings with nontrainee family and friends were associated with satisfaction for fellows (P = 0.002) but not integrated residents (P = 0.138), whereas social outings with vascular trainees were associated with satisfaction for integrated residents (P = 0.047) but not fellows (P = 0.375). Similarly, satisfied integrated residents were more likely to have close relationships with their vascular cotrainees (P = 0.035) than fellows (P = 0.349). No rank list factors were found to be predictive of current trainee satisfaction for integrated residents. Rank list factors associated with fellow satisfaction included recommendation of the institution from a mentor (P < 0.001), success of program graduates (P = 0.002), faculty (P = 0.014), perceived program prestige (P = 0.040), and amount of early operative exposure (P = 0.042).

Conclusions: Vascular surgery trainees report a high level of satisfaction with their training program. Fellow satisfaction was more dependent on the perception of their workplace peers than integrated residents. Satisfied integrated residents were more likely to have close relationships with their vascular cotrainees than fellows.