The Choice of Surgical Specialization by Medical Students and Their Syncopal History

BackgroundThe aim of the study was to assess whether medical students' fainting outside the university or while witnessing surgical procedures and/or autopsies influenced their choice of a specialization.Materials and methodsThe study group consisted of 605 medical students (from fourth to sixth year of study) from five medical universities in Poland (325 women, 212 men and 8 responders of an unspecified gender). The median age of subjects studied was 23 years, and the interquartile range was 23-24 years. The students at each university were chosen randomly by the author who worked there and had contact with them. An anonymous questionnaire was developed to gather information regarding demographics, the specialization which each student wanted to choose, the syncope occurrence in the medical history, the syncope and presyncope occurrence during surgery and autopsy as well as the syncopal events' characteristics.ResultsThe group of 15% of women and 30% of men declared to have pursued the surgical specialization (PConclusionsSyncopal and presyncopal spells may affect the professional choices of the medical students. The male gender and a lack of syncope occurrence outside operating room are related to the choice of surgical specialization.