For Advocates & Changemakers · Belonging

What helps a surgeon feel they belong?

Belonging isn’t a perk. It shapes how engaged surgeons are, and whether they stay. This page gathers what I’m reading about it, starting with a new study of surgical faculty.

Sunlight filtering through the canopy of a tree over a garden of agaves and low plants
The study

Belonging, in surgeons’ own words

Belonging has been studied among surgical trainees, but much less among the surgeons who train them. This qualitative study asked attending surgeons directly. I wanted it here because it names, plainly, what helps people stay connected to their work and what quietly wears that connection down.

Featured article

Understanding Surgeon Belonging: A Qualitative Exploration of Engagement, Identity, and Community

Szczygiel LA, Niba V, Dimick JB, Suwanabol PA, Byrnes ME, Barret M. Annals of Surgery. Published online February 5, 2026.

The team interviewed 39 practicing surgical faculty at the University of Michigan, a single academic medical center where efforts to strengthen workplace culture, equity, and well-being were already visible and ongoing. Three themes shaped whether faculty felt they belonged:

  1. Values congruence and engagement. When personal and institutional goals lined up, faculty felt connected and engaged.
  2. Recognition, trust, and professional voice. Having their contributions recognized, and having professional autonomy, reinforced identity and inclusion.
  3. Community and connection. Supportive relationships promoted belonging, while social isolation eroded it.

Key takeaway: Belonging isn’t luck or personality; departments can build it. The authors point to three levers: visible and equitable recognition of contributions, intentional relational supports, and alignment between institutional and professional values.

PubMed abstract

Who gets left out

Belonging isn’t evenly shared

It’s hard to feel you belong somewhere you can’t be fully seen. In Beyond the Scalpel: Tackling Challenges Faced by LGBTQ+ Surgical Trainees and Faculty Ann Surg 2025 (Annals of Surgery, 2025), the authors describe LGBTQ+ surgeons as a “silent” minority: in 2019 survey data, 59.2% of LGBTQ+ surgical trainees reported discrimination, compared with 42.3% of their non-LGBTQ peers, and in a separate study 89% of LGBTQ+ surgery residents did not disclose their identity when applying for residency. I wrote more about it on my allyship page.

The same idea runs through my neurodiversity page, where James Henderson puts it simply: “Everything comes down to what environment you’re in.”

Keep reading

Nearby on this site

What allyship asks of each of us, and neurodiversity in the workplace: education, training, work environments, and patient care where neurodivergent practitioners and patients thrive.

Allyship →

Neurodiversity →

Or · Mental Health in Medicine · #UnmaskMedicine

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