Life Long Learning: The Attending and Educator in Orthopedic Trauma.

As effective surgeon educators, we must seek continual improvement, to be "better today than I was yesterday." This pursuit of personal and professional development requires self-awareness of a guiding purpose, and grit, the passion and perseverance to achieve long-term goals. Surgical training draws on an apprenticeship model, where progressive transfer of knowledge, responsibility, and autonomy occurs over time as trainees work with experienced surgeons. Educators should model personal responsibility and technical excellence and require both of their trainees. While training programs shift towards competency-based learning, educators must remember that we shape learners with the "hidden curriculum" and not just the facts we teach them.