Dow Todd, McGuire Connor, Crawley Emma, Davies Dafydd
Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Can Med Educ J. 2020 Jul 15;11(3):e92-e100. doi: 10.36834/cmej.58444. eCollection 2020 Jul.
The purpose of this study is to identify if the previously reported declining interest in surgery amongst medical students persists, and also to provide more descriptive analysis of trends by surgical specialty and medical school. Our hypothesis is that the previously reported decreasing interest in surgery remains constant for some surgical disciplines.
The Canadian Resident Matching Service and the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada provided data for this study. Several metrics of interest in surgery, including overall application trends, applications by discipline, and rankings by school of graduation were evaluated. Descriptive statistics and linear regression modeling were used.
Between 2007 and 2017 the number of non-surgical residency positions and Canadian medical graduates increased significantly. However, the number of surgical residency positions and applications to surgical programs did not change significantly. The number of rankings to orthopedic and vascular surgery decreased significantly. Likewise, applicants to general, orthopedic, plastic, otolaryngology, and vascular surgery decreased significantly. Vascular surgery saw a significant decrease in first choice rankings. Total rankings to surgical programs increased significantly at McGill, with no significant change at other Canadian institutions.
The findings of this study suggest that while the number of applicants to surgical residency positions has been consistent, it is not keeping pace with the growing number of both CMGs and non-surgical residency positions. Furthermore, by using other measures of medical student interest in surgical specialties, such as the total number of rankings to a specialty through the residency matching process, the total number of applicants applying to a surgical discipline and the total number of first choice ranks that each surgical discipline received, we have demonstrated that there is a possible declining interest in some surgical discipline.
本研究旨在确定此前报道的医学生对手术兴趣下降的情况是否仍然存在，并按外科专业和医学院校提供更具描述性的趋势分析。我们的假设是，此前报道的对手术兴趣的下降在某些外科学科中保持不变。
加拿大住院医师匹配服务机构和加拿大医学院协会为本研究提供了数据。评估了对手术感兴趣的几个指标，包括总体申请趋势、按学科划分的申请情况以及毕业院校的排名。使用了描述性统计和线性回归模型。
2007年至2017年间，非外科住院医师职位数量和加拿大医学毕业生数量显著增加。然而，外科住院医师职位数量和手术项目申请数量没有显著变化。骨科和血管外科的排名数量显著下降。同样，普通外科、骨科、整形外科、耳鼻喉科和血管外科的申请者数量显著减少。血管外科的首选排名显著下降。麦吉尔大学手术项目的总排名显著增加，加拿大其他机构则无显著变化。
本研究结果表明，虽然申请外科住院医师职位的人数一直保持稳定，但与加拿大医学毕业生和非外科住院医师职位数量的增长不同步。此外，通过使用医学生对外科专业兴趣的其他衡量标准，如通过住院医师匹配过程对某个专业的总排名数量、申请某个外科学科的申请者总数以及每个外科学科获得的首选排名总数，我们证明了对某些外科学科的兴趣可能在下降。
