ObjectiveTo discuss the participation of different types of trainee physicians in surgery during rotation practice to provide reference for optimizing the training of clinical surgeons taking thyroid and parathyroid surgery as an example. MethodsThe cases of thyroid surgery in West China Hospital of Sichuan University from September 2021 to May 2022 were prospective randomly selected and the surgical participation of younger trainee physicians (interns, professional postgraduates, and training physicians) and older trainee physicians (refresher physicians, resident and attending physicians of our hospital) were analyzed. ResultsAmong the 787 surgical cases, compared with the older trainee physicians, the younger trainees had a lower surgical participation rate, shorter participation time and were more likely to participate in the first 1–3 surgeries and participate as the second or third assistant. ConclusionThe surgical training of younger trainee physicians, such as interns, professional postgraduates, and training physicians, still needs to be improved.