Training should work for future parents and future surgeons.
Share the childcare math. Under a published single-income model, most surgical programs left a single-parent resident underwater. A workforce that cannot afford a family is unfair to residents and a strain on the patients who need them to stay.
Negative net income after childcare
98.3%
290 of 295 surgical programs in the model
Childcare vs one paycheck
Stated scope: single income, one child. Dual incomes, family help, and subsidies change the result. Parents of infants in the West averaged negative $21,278[45].
Median leave taken
4.5wks
ACGME paid-leave floor: 6 wks
Ophthalmology residents who took leave; floor at 100% salary.
Who leaves surgical training
Across 20-plus studies and 19,821 residents: 25% for women versus 15% for men, with 48% of leavers exiting after the first year. A fifth moved to another surgery program. Uncontrollable lifestyle was the top reported cause.
Send the figures on
Share the childcare math with a program director. Send the attrition figures to a policymaker shaping surgical workforce policy.