Landmark lecture on surgery: paediatric cardiothoracic surgery – training the next generation of congenital heart surgeons

IntroductionRecent changes in surgical education have had an impact on our congenital training programmes. The mandate of the 8-hour workweek, a rapidly expanding knowledge base, and a host of other mandates has had an impact on the readiness of the fellows who are entering congenital programmes. To understand these issues completely, we interviewed the top congenital experts in the United States of America. The purpose of this paper is to share their insight and offer suggestions to address these challenges.MethodsWe used a qualitative thematic analysis approach and performed phone interviews with the top five congenital experts in the United States of America.ResultsExperts unanimously felt that duty-hour restrictions have negatively affected congenital training programmes in the following ways: current fellows do not seem as conditioned as fellows in the past, patient handoffs are not consistent with excellent performance, the mentor–mentee relationship has been affected by duty-hour restrictions, and fellows may be less prepared for real-world practice. Three positive themes emerged in response to duty-hour restrictions: fellows appear to be doing less menial task work, fellows are now better rested for learning, and we are attracting more individuals into the speciality. Experts agreed that congenital fellowships should be increased to 2 years. There was support for both the traditional and integrated residency pathways.DiscussionWe are in a new era of education and must work together to overcome the challenges that have arisen in recent years.