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

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 < .01), while their greatest strength was getting along with others (4.52 +/- 0.65; P < .01). Candidates identified, as short-term goals, obtaining a fellowship training position, completion of research/academic projects, and improvement of surgical skills; their common long-term goals included having a role in an academic institution, professional society, and/or research and innovation environment. The majority of participants agreed that the IDP is a valuable tool to characterize career and personal goals (74%) and facilitate longitudinal fellowship mentorship (83.3%). Conclusion: The majority of candidates valued the IDP for their short- and long-term goals. Program implementation of an IDP could be beneficial in allowing trainees to effectively identify areas of weakness and strengths while facilitating efficient communication of these needs to mentors.