Association for Surgical EducationWhy are women deterred from general surgery training?
Section snippets
Subjects
Appropriate institutional ethics approval for this study was obtained before its implementation. A self-administered questionnaire was e-mailed to all final-year medical students (N = 349) from a convenience sample of universities in Canada (University of Manitoba, Queen’s University, University of Ottawa, and University of British Columbia) in November 2002. Nonresponders were e-mailed another survey after 1 month, up to a maximum of 3 mailings.
Practicing female surgeons residing in Canada
Response
Of the 349 final-year medical students registered at the four institutions, 230 surveys were returned for an overall response rate of 66%. The response rates varied by individual institution (Manitoba 78%, Queen’s 74%, Ottawa 67%, British Columbia 51%). There were 127 returned surveys from women and 103 from men, with a slightly higher proportion of surveys returned from women.
Of the 244 female general surgeons residing in Canada, 187 surveys were returned (77% response rate). However, 5
Comments
Our results showed that female and male students had equal interest in GS but women were less likely to actually pursue it as a career, which is consistent with the results of other studies in this area [15]. We asked students only whether they had considered a career in GS at any point during their medical school career and not how seriously it was considered, which is a limitation of our study. Nonetheless, students who consider GS as a career path but ultimately choose another specialty
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Supported by a research grant from the Physician’s Services Incorporated (PSI) Foundation, Ontario, Canada.