"I Came up Short on the Academic Ladder:": A Grounded Theory Study of Careerism in Academic Surgery.

As the definition of career success in academic surgery changes to encompass a broader range of interests and ambitions, the traditional markers of success must come into review. Academic surgeons see the value of titles, as a marker of success and as a means to achieving other goals, but overwhelmingly our interviewees felt that titles were a double-edged sword, and that a more inclusive definition of academic success was needed.