title: Challenges and opportunities for recruiting a new generation of neurosurgeons.
abstract: Several factors have converged to raise concern among program directors about attracting and training the next generation of neurosurgeons. These include the relatively new duty-hour regulations, the projected physician shortage, and the preference of many current medical students for controllable lifestyles. Attracting top talent into training programs may require innovations geared to Generation X such as policies supporting work-life balance, flexible work options, lots of feedback, mentoring programs, talented leadership, and standardized communication strategies during patient handoffs. Larger programmatic changes may also be needed such as "competency-based" training and additional years of training for mastery of highly specialized procedures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA. brown066@mc.duke.edu
authors.forename: Ann J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Allan H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Friedman
mesh_terms: D004501:Education, Medical; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000193:education* / Q000639:trends*