Purpose
To identify the top five ideal characteristics (behaviors) of both the retina surgical fellow and attending.
Methods
The authors surveyed 27 surgical vitreoretinal attendings and 20 first year surgical vitreoretinal fellows, participants in the 5th Annual Mass Eye and Ear Vitrectomy Course (July 2014). The survey contained a list of 24 positive characteristics (Table 1). Attendings and fellows were asked to pick the five most desirable characteristics of the ideal fellow and rank them 1 to 5 with 1 being the most desirable. Fellows were also asked the same question in regard to the five most desirable characteristics of an ideal attending. Choices were ranked using a Borda Count Method and rank lists were compared to each other using the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient. The Borda count ranged from 0-130 for the attendings’ responses and 0-105 for the fellows’ responses.
Results
The top two ideal fellow qualities most desirable to attendings were “Good judgment” and “Passionate about work” whereas the top two ideal attending qualities most desirable to fellows were “Passionate about work” and “Skillful communication." The top two qualities that fellows felt made them an ideal fellow differed and were “Integrity” and “Professionalism." When comparing the top five qualities that make an ideal fellow between the attending and the fellows, there was no significant difference (Table 2) in their list. (Spearman correlation coefficient ρ = 0.74 > critical ρ (N = 24, α = .01) = 0.521). There was a significant difference between the qualities of an ideal attending compared to those of an ideal fellow. (Spearman correlation coefficients ρ = 0.28 and ρ = 0.31, respectively; both < critical ρ (N = 24, α = .01) = 0.521).
Conclusions
Fellows and attendings agree on the qualities that make an ideal surgical retina fellow and include "Good judgment," "Integrity," and being "Passionate about work." In comparison, an ideal retina surgical attending as per the fellow has similar characteristics, although statistically different with more emphasis on "Skillful communication" and "Patience."