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A Cross Sectional Evaluation of a Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship in a Low to Middle Income Country: Fellows' Perspective

Background: There is a growing trend towards sub specialization and fellowship training in orthopaedic surgery. Data from the United States has shown that over 90% of orthopaedic residents plan to pursue fellowship training and there is a trend in the orthopaedic job market toward seeking fellowship...

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Main Author: Boskovic, Viseslav-Willy
Other Authors: Roche, Stephen
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Division of General Surgery 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Boskovic, Viseslav-Willy
author2 Roche, Stephen
author_browse Boskovic, Viseslav-Willy
Roche, Stephen
author_facet Roche, Stephen
Boskovic, Viseslav-Willy
author_sort Boskovic, Viseslav-Willy
collection Thesis
description Background: There is a growing trend towards sub specialization and fellowship training in orthopaedic surgery. Data from the United States has shown that over 90% of orthopaedic residents plan to pursue fellowship training and there is a trend in the orthopaedic job market toward seeking fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeons. Objectives: This study aimed to elucidate graduate perceptions of how undertaking the shoulder and elbow fellowship offered by the Department of Surgery, University of Cape Town (UCT) impacted their professional and personal development and to identify potential means of improving the quality of the programme. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional survey analysis was performed using an online questionnaire posing questions related to various aspects of the training programme. Subjects consisted of nine qualified orthopaedic surgeons who had completed the UCT Shoulder and Elbow fellowship. Survey questions were predetermined through discussion and agreement among the researchers. Results: All emails sent drew responses to the survey. An overall good to excellent level of satisfaction with the various aspects of the training program was reported by the fellowship candidates. Post-fellowship increase in arthroscopic and open surgical skill level, as well as understanding of research, was found to be significant. The majority agreed that the fellowship had adequately prepared them for work in their current setting. The candidates strongly agreed that the fellowship enhanced their abilities, when compared to their peers, in pre-operative decision making, intra-operative decision making, formulating ethical judgements, operative surgical skills and teaching ability. Conclusion: The results confirm the positive impact of the fellowship on post-training levels of confidence across clinical, research, decision-making and educational domains by Fellows. The study highlights the benefits of post-graduate fellowship training with the analysis being broadly applicable to similar training programmes globally. It underscores the importance of continuous evaluation of fellowship programmes.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:47.142Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37102 A Cross Sectional Evaluation of a Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship in a Low to Middle Income Country: Fellows' Perspective Boskovic, Viseslav-Willy Roche, Stephen Orthopaedic Surgery Background: There is a growing trend towards sub specialization and fellowship training in orthopaedic surgery. Data from the United States has shown that over 90% of orthopaedic residents plan to pursue fellowship training and there is a trend in the orthopaedic job market toward seeking fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeons. Objectives: This study aimed to elucidate graduate perceptions of how undertaking the shoulder and elbow fellowship offered by the Department of Surgery, University of Cape Town (UCT) impacted their professional and personal development and to identify potential means of improving the quality of the programme. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional survey analysis was performed using an online questionnaire posing questions related to various aspects of the training programme. Subjects consisted of nine qualified orthopaedic surgeons who had completed the UCT Shoulder and Elbow fellowship. Survey questions were predetermined through discussion and agreement among the researchers. Results: All emails sent drew responses to the survey. An overall good to excellent level of satisfaction with the various aspects of the training program was reported by the fellowship candidates. Post-fellowship increase in arthroscopic and open surgical skill level, as well as understanding of research, was found to be significant. The majority agreed that the fellowship had adequately prepared them for work in their current setting. The candidates strongly agreed that the fellowship enhanced their abilities, when compared to their peers, in pre-operative decision making, intra-operative decision making, formulating ethical judgements, operative surgical skills and teaching ability. Conclusion: The results confirm the positive impact of the fellowship on post-training levels of confidence across clinical, research, decision-making and educational domains by Fellows. The study highlights the benefits of post-graduate fellowship training with the analysis being broadly applicable to similar training programmes globally. It underscores the importance of continuous evaluation of fellowship programmes. 2023-03-02T07:55:39Z 2023-03-02T07:55:39Z 2022 2023-02-20T12:18:51Z Master Thesis Masters MMed http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37102 eng application/pdf Division of General Surgery Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle Orthopaedic Surgery
Boskovic, Viseslav-Willy
A Cross Sectional Evaluation of a Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship in a Low to Middle Income Country: Fellows' Perspective
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A Cross Sectional Evaluation of a Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship in a Low to Middle Income Country: Fellows' Perspective
title_full A Cross Sectional Evaluation of a Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship in a Low to Middle Income Country: Fellows' Perspective
title_fullStr A Cross Sectional Evaluation of a Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship in a Low to Middle Income Country: Fellows' Perspective
title_full_unstemmed A Cross Sectional Evaluation of a Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship in a Low to Middle Income Country: Fellows' Perspective
title_short A Cross Sectional Evaluation of a Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship in a Low to Middle Income Country: Fellows' Perspective
title_sort cross sectional evaluation of a shoulder and elbow fellowship in a low to middle income country fellows perspective
topic Orthopaedic Surgery
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37102
work_keys_str_mv AT boskovicviseslavwilly acrosssectionalevaluationofashoulderandelbowfellowshipinalowtomiddleincomecountryfellowsperspective
AT boskovicviseslavwilly crosssectionalevaluationofashoulderandelbowfellowshipinalowtomiddleincomecountryfellowsperspective