ArticleBMC medical education2021
Vascular surgery trainee retention in the UK: how many leave and why? A survey of trainee and Training Programme Directors' perceptions.
Article in BMC medical education, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- How do programme directors perceive trainee attrition? A qualitative focus group study in three Dutch teaching hospitals.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Another gap on the rota: a scoping review of attrition from specialty training in secondary care.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- More than burnout: qualitative study on understanding attrition among senior Obstetrics and Gynaecology UK-based trainees.BMJ open · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIt is currently not known how many trainees leave vascular surgery, and their reasons for doing so are unclear. This paper is the first to publish the number of UK trainees leaving the training programme and interrogates their reasons for doing so.
methodsAn email survey was distributed to current and recent Training Programme Directors (TPDs) to quantify the number of trainees resigning between 2013 and 2019. Trainees resigning a National Training Number (NTN) were surveyed regarding their reasons for doing so.
resultsSince 2013, 23 UK vascular surgery trainees have resigned NTNs, representing 15.4% of the 149 NTNs awarded between 2013 and our analysis. Reasons for leaving, as relayed by TPDs, included availability of an academic career, geography, health and many other reasons classified as "work-life balance" factors. Data from the trainees surveyed also highlighted work-life balance but also identified pressures within the training system and NHS.
conclusionsUK data of this sort has not previously been available. The authors' primary recommendation is that prospective data collection on trainee retention is carried out, with structured exit interviews with trainees who decide to leave. Our secondary recommendations include improvements to the inter-deanery transfer process and early realistic exposure to vascular surgery for junior doctors to improve trainee retention rates in vascular surgery.
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Registered trials
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