Fellowship Directors Forum: Strategies for the Management of a Struggling Fellow

Orthopaedic subspecialty fellowships are often the final stage of education prior to independent practice. Fellowship education should impart an advanced skill set within the chosen subspecialty that will continue to evolve throughout the young surgeon’s career. Fellows can present with variable surgical skills, preparedness, and knowledge. The fellowship faculty are tasked with training a fellow within the confines of a single year. Secondary to this condensed educational timeline, it is crucial to recognize the signs of a struggling fellow as early as possible and determine the specific domains in which they are struggling. A learning plan that is tailored to their specific deficiencies, created and enacted early in the year, can help ready the fellow for graduation, autonomy, and subspecialty competency.