Who wants to be a surgeon? A study of 300 first year medical students

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Abstract

Background

While medicine in general is becoming more female-dominated, women are still under-represented in surgery. Opinion is divided as to whether this is due to lifestyle considerations, disinterest or perceived discrimination. It is not clear at what stage these careers decisions are made.

Methods

300 first year medical students at Guy's King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine (GKT) were asked their view on possible career choices at this stage.

Results

While men represented only 38% of the student population, they represented over two-thirds of the students wishing to pursue a career in surgery.

Women still opt for general practice and paediatrics.

Conclusion

Surgery is a disproportionately unpopular career choice of the female first-year medical students of GKT compared to the male students. It appears that the choice is freely made and, at this stage at least, does not represent concerns about compatibility with lifestyle.

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Most cited references 21

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Influence of controllable lifestyle on recent trends in specialty choice by US medical students.

E Dorsey, David Jarjoura, Gregory W Rutecki (2003)

Recent specialty choices of graduating US medical students suggest that lifestyle may be an increasingly important factor in their career decision making. To determine whether and to what degree controllable lifestyle and other specialty-related characteristics are associated with recent (1996-2002) changes in the specialty preferences of US senior medical students. Specialty preference was based on analysis of results from the National Resident Matching Program, the San Francisco Matching Program, and the American Urological Association Matching Program from 1996 to 2002. Specialty lifestyle (controllable vs uncontrollable) was classified using earlier research. Log-linear models were developed that examined specialty preference and the specialty's controllability, income, work hours, and years of graduate medical education required. Proportion of variability in specialty preference from 1996 to 2002 explained by controllable lifestyle. The specialty preferences of US senior medical students, as determined by the distribution of applicants across selected specialties, changed significantly from 1996 to 2002 (P<.001). In the log-linear model, controllable lifestyle explained 55% of the variability in specialty preference from 1996 to 2002 after controlling for income, work hours, and years of graduate medical education required (P<.001). Perception of controllable lifestyle accounts for most of the variability in recent changing patterns in the specialty choices of graduating US medical students.

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Women in surgical residency training programs.

C Blakemore, J Biermann, Timothy J. Hall (2003)

Increasing numbers of women are entering surgical fields. The purpose of this study was to assess whether orthopaedic surgery is significantly different from other surgical fields in the recruitment of women to training programs. We analyzed data from the American Association of Medical Colleges as reported in annual issues on medical education in the Journal of the American Medical Association for the years 1970 to 2001, excluding 1975. Using linear regression models, we analyzed two factors: changes in the percentage of women within orthopaedic residencies (i.e., the ratio of men to women) and changes in the percentage of all female residents who choose to enter orthopaedics compared with other types of surgical residencies. The percentage of women in the entering classes of medical school has increased from 11.1% in 1970 to 47.8% in 2001, while the percentage of women in orthopaedics has increased from 0.6% in 1970 to 9.0% in 2001. Orthopaedic residencies have the lowest percentage of women compared with all other primary surgical specialties. Only thoracic surgery, a field entered secondarily after the completion of general surgical training, has a lower percentage. The increases in the percentage of women in orthopaedics over the past thirty years have been significantly lower than those in every other primary surgical field (including general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, and urology), except neurosurgery, and are markedly different from the percentages of women in the entering classes of medical school. The percentage of all female residents who choose an orthopaedic residency is 0.6%, a number that has not changed over the past twenty years. Orthopaedic surgery has not had the same success in recruiting female trainees that other surgical fields have had. Furthermore, there appears to be a leveling of the recruitment rate over the past two decades, indicating that the higher numbers of women entering medicine will not be sufficient to improve gender representation in orthopaedic surgery training.

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Perceptions of women medical students and their influence on career choice.

S Kaiser, P L Barney, C Gazak … (2002)

Although women make up nearly half of medical school classes in the United States, just over 20% of residents in surgery are women (excluding obstetrics/gynecology). The objective of this study was to identify whether the proportion of women surgeons on the faculty who have frequent encounters with medical students during their surgery rotation influences the student's perceptions about women surgeons or their career choice. Seven US medical schools with proportions of women surgeons on the fulltime faculty varying from 10% to 40% were selected to participate in this survey. Women medical students graduating in the spring of 2000 were asked to complete an anonymous 29 question survey designed to assess their perceptions of women surgeons' career satisfaction. Demographic information about the students such as career choice, age, and marital status was also collected. The differences in responses between those schools with 40% women faculty and those with less than 15% were analyzed. The overall response rate was 74% (305 of 413). Forty-five percent of students had daily or weekly contact with a woman surgery attending. There were no differences in perceptions of women surgeons' career satisfaction for those students at schools with 40% women surgeons versus those with less than 15%. However, 21 of 24 (88%) students choosing surgery as a career were from the three schools with a greater number of women surgical role models (P <0.0001). Students who chose a career in surgery perceived the women faculty's career satisfaction to be higher than did those students not choosing a surgical career (P <0.01). Women medical students perception of women surgeons' career satisfaction did not appear to be affected by the proportion of women surgeons on the faculty at their medical school. However, their choice of surgery as a career was strongly associated with a higher proportion of women on the surgical faculty.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Med Educ

Title: BMC Medical Education

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1472-6920

Publication date Collection: 2007

Publication date (Electronic): 19 January 2007

Volume: 7

Page: 2

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Surgery, RCHT Treliske, Treliske, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 3LJ, UK

[2 ]Department of Surgery, The Royal Free Hospital, Pond St., London NW3 2QG, UK

[3 ]Department of Anatomy, Hodgkin Building, Guy's Campus, Guy's King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, St Thomas' Street, London SE1 1UL, UK

Article

Publisher ID: 1472-6920-7-2

DOI: 10.1186/1472-6920-7-2

PMC ID: 1784089

PubMed ID: 17239248

SO-VID: dcff4162-270b-486b-b54c-4021b8a85f28

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Who wants to be a surgeon? A study of 300 first year medical students

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Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

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Most cited references 21

Influence of controllable lifestyle on recent trends in specialty choice by US medical students.

Women in surgical residency training programs.

Perceptions of women medical students and their influence on career choice.

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