The following is a summary of “Female surgical trainee recruitment and attrition – A 10-year national retrospective review,” published in the FEBRUARY 2023 issue of Surgery by Ying, et al.

Surgical specialties have traditionally been male-dominated, with studies showing lower enrollment and higher attrition of female trainees in surgery. Therefore, there was a need to assess whether there have been any improvements toward greater equity in surgical training.

A retrospective cohort study was conducted on Canadian surgical residents who began training between 2000 and 2010. Enrollment data was compared to how many individuals registered for their final surgical certifying examinations by 2018, indicating their residency completion.

Over 10 years, the study found that the overall attrition rate of surgical trainees was 8%. However, female residents had a significantly higher attrition rate than their male counterparts, with 12.4% of female residents leaving training compared to 6.1% of male residents (P < 0.001). The data suggested that attrition rates for female residents were declining over time.

In terms of enrollment, the study showed that the proportion of female surgical trainees across all specialties increased from 27.3% to 39.2% during the same 10-year period. Overall, while there has been progressing towards greater equity in Canadian surgical training enrollment and retention for those who began training from 2000 to 2010, there were still differences in female trainee recruitment and attrition rates compared to their male counterparts.

While there have been improvements towards greater equity in Canadian surgical training enrollment and retention for those who began training between 2000 and 2010, differences still exist in female trainee recruitment and attrition rates compared to their male counterparts. Further efforts were needed to address these disparities and ensure greater equity in surgical training.

Reference: americanjournalofsurgery.com/article/S0002-9610(22)00486-X/fulltext