A national survey of medical student career choices in final medical year

Introduction: The national NCHD recruitment crisis prompts an appraisal of medical student attitudes to surgery as a career. The purpose of this study was to assess career intentions of Irish final year medical students. Methods: Ethical and institutional approval was obtained where appropriate. A questionnaire-based approach was adopted. Domains assessed included demographics, career plans and attitudes towards surgery. The questionnaire was distributed to final year students from the above listed authors institutions. Anonymised responses were collated; evaluated and interim results are presented. Categorical data were compared with Fishers exact test, p\0.05 was taken as significant. Results: 332 students have completed the questionnaire (78.6% were undergraduate). 17.2% of students intended to pursue surgery, with 61.1% stating they did not plan to, and 21.1% undecided. Of the 61.1% (203) who did not plan to do surgery, 28% were unsure about speciality but the commonest choices were medicine (39%), general practice (16%) and paediatrics (8%). Common reasons for not planning a career in surgery included duration of working hours and perceived unstructured career path. Factor % who intend to pursue surgery Significance (Fischers exact test) Gender Male (39.8%) 25.2 P\0.01 Female (60.2%) 12.6 Previous surgical elective Yes (37.3%) 33.9 P\0.01 No (62.7%) 7.1 Family member in surgery Yes (18%) 20 P = NS No (82%) 16.6 NS not significant Conclusions: In this interim analysis 17.2% of final medical year respondents (n = 57) identified surgery as their chosen career pathway. When contextualised in terms of attrition rates, and the ongoing recruitement crisis, there is an urgent need to address causative factors.