Background: Academic surgeons make various important decisions about their careers; however, little is known about the relationships between fellowship training, career development issues, and academic responsibilities.
Methods: Surgeon members of the Association for Surgical Education were surveyed about career development issues. Three hundred ninety-two (75.2%) surgeons responded.
Results: An exploratory factor analysis of the career development issues revealed four career development factors. Statistically significant differences were found between types of fellowship training and the career development factors. Nonfellowship-trained and clinical-fellowship-trained surgeons spend their time similarly to physicians in other specialties. Research-fellowship-trained surgeons spent significantly more time doing research, had fewer concerns about professional confidence, and expressed greater satisfaction with their careers.
Conclusion: There is a relationship between career development issues, fellowship training, and type of fellowship training. Attention to these issues may be important in recruiting and retaining academic surgeons.