1. Encouraging medical students to become surgeons? Impact of psychological and surgical factors on career choice at medical school
- Author
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Brügge, Sandra, Günther, Veronika, Cascorbi, Ingolf, Maass, Nicolai, Ruchay, Zino, Fischer, Martin R., Huber, Johanna, and Alkatout, Ibrahim
- Subjects
post-graduate medical training ,interest in surgery ,self-efficacy expectations ,resilience ,stress ,Special aspects of education ,LC8-6691 ,Medicine - Abstract
Aim: Training decisions are viewed as a problem by the majority of medical students.In the present study we compared sociodemographic and psychological characteristics of students who are interested in surgical training to those who preferred a non-surgical specialty. Furthermore, we examined whether students who wish to be trained as surgeons performed better than their non-surgical counterparts in a course designed to acquire skills in minimally invasive surgery.Method: From October 2020 to January 2021 we performed a cross-sectional survey among 116 medical students prior to their year of practical training at Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel. Based on their intended field of specialization, the students were divided into a non-surgical and a surgical group. Sociodemographic and psychological characteristics such as self-efficacy expectations, resilience and stress perception were evaluated and compared between groups. Simultaneously, we compared their surgical performance in two laparoscopic exercises and their self-assessment as surgeons. Statistical differences between the training groups were determined by the Mann-Whitney U test or Pearson’s Chi square test. Results: Ninety-two students participated in the study, of whom 64.1% intended to train in a non-surgical specialty and 35.9% in a surgical specialty. Students who wished to be trained as surgeons had higher general self-efficacy expectations (p
- Published
- 2024
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