Academic longevity and attrition of full-time orthopaedic faculty members.

Abstract

Orthopaedic faculty members catalyze the renewal of the specialty. They may provide the strongest role model for a medical student's or resident's career2,8. Undoubtedly, all residents weigh the relative merits of accepting that role model for themselves, and some do become faculty members, at least for a portion of their careers. Many of the pros and cons of such a career choice differ by institution. The decision points are also subjective and intangible, and they vary over time. No objective data exist, either for those considering such a choice or for program directors offering such a position, regarding the anticipated longevity of an academic position. What is the likelihood of a faculty member spending an entire career at one institution as opposed to moving to another academic position or to private practice? Has the longevity changed over time? Does it differ by subspecialty? Are there gender differences? Such questions have national implications. Certainly, the opportunity, appeal, and pressures of serving as an orthopaedic teacher have changed over the approximately 100 years that orthopaedics has existed as a discipline and over the sixty-five years that it has existed as a board-certified specialty2-5,7,12. In the first half of the twentieth century, orthopaedic faculty members were predominantly volunteers who had private practices and contributed time at teaching hospitals18. There were seventy-seven medical schools in the United States from 1933 to 1948. By 1963, the addition of ten schools and the expansion of class size at the existing schools accounted for a 31 percent increase in the annual number of graduates compared with the number in 19488. An additional increase of 75 percent occurred between 1963 and 1975, following two federal government reports, in 1958 and 1959, that …