(1090) Surgical Critical Care Versus Acute Care Surgery Fellowship: Impact on Early Career Milestones

Introduction: Two different training pathways exist to enter a career in Surgical Critical Care (SCC). The traditional 1-year SCC fellowship or a two year Acute Care Surgery (ACS) fellowship which adds a second year of training to refine skills in trauma, emergency surgery, and research. This study examines the differences in initial work placement and professional development among individuals who completed the 2-year ACS fellowship and those who completed the traditional 1-year SCC fellowship

Methods: An internet search was completed to identify all accredited SCC and ACS fellowship programs and graduating fellows for 2023. Additional internet searches identified fellow demographics, details regarding their first job after fellowship and number of publications. Statistical analysis was completed to compare groups.

Results: Complete data was identified for 161 fellows,128 SCC and 33 ACS, training at 74 programs. While a majority of both SCC and ACS fellows work at level 1 Trauma centers, ACS fellows were more likely to have their first job at an academic or academic-affiliated center (88% vs 69%, p=0.033). 18 Fellows returned to their residency training program while 3 stayed at their fellowship program for their first job. Seven SCC fellows pursued an additional fellowship in a specialty other than ACS. Mean publications during fellowship were significantly higher for the ACS fellows 1.85 ± 2.27 compared to SCC fellows 0.60 ± 1.28 (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: This study demonstrated there are differences in early professional outcomes among graduates of 1-year SCC and 2-year ACS fellowships. New graduates of ACS fellowships produced more publications during fellowship and were more likely to work at an academic-affiliated hospital. Continuing to understand the professional outcomes from these two fellowship pathways is crucial for guiding future fellows and program development.