Surgical educationAn Internet-based survey of factors influencing medical student selection of a general surgery career
Section snippets
Survey design and administration
Electronic mail contact with graduating medical students at approximately 70 Liason Committee on Medical Education (LCME)- and American Osteopathic Association-accredited US medical schools was attempted through the administration at these institutions; the institutions were selected because of ready availability of electronic mail contacts in their offices of student affairs. This initial contact included information about the survey and log-in information for the hosting web site. The survey
Demographics
A total of 408 students from 16 different medical schools responded to the Internet survey. The medical schools of the respondents represent a broad geographic cross-section of the United States (Table 1). The mean age of respondents was 27.2 years, and 52% of respondents were male (Table 2). Self-reported ethnic background of 72% of students who completed the survey was White/Caucasian; the minority groups with the most students responding included Indian or Pakistani (5.4%), other Asian
Comments
The use of an Internet-based survey tool to conduct a multi-institutional examination of factors influencing medical student specialty selection is unique to this study. This survey does suffer from possible recall bias and sample bias, as do most surveys of this nature. The timing of the survey was ideal for minimizing recall bias as it was conducted after residency interviews were completed and before National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) results were released. Sample bias is more of a
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