Use of an Individualized Development Plan to Identify Career Development Needs in Prospective Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Fellows

Abstract

Background: Mentorship is a key aspect of leadership development for orthopaedic surgeons, but there are few formalized mentorship programs in medical training. The individualized development plan (IDP) is a tool that potentially improves mentorship opportunities through identifying specific competency deficiencies and facilitating communication with mentors. Purpose: To assess the views of prospective orthopaedic surgery sports medicine fellows on the skills necessary for career development and the utility of an IDP for longitudinal career mentorship during a sports medicine fellowship. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Candidates who interviewed for an orthopaedic surgery sports medicine fellowship voluntarily completed an anonymous IDP as well as a survey to assess their perceptions of the IDP tool to define their career goals and its use for longitudinal mentorship. The IDP included quantitative and qualitative responses for the self-assessment of multiple skill domains (general research, teaching, professional, interpersonal, leadership, and management) using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = needs improvement, 5 = highly proficient). Quantitative results were analyzed using analysis of variance and Student t test. Results: A total of 25 candidates completed the IDP and survey. The mean ± standard deviation composite score of all skill domains was 3.62 ± 0.91. The candidates’ greatest deficit was in grant writing (2.28 ± 0.94; P