Department of Orthopaedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
MD Undergraduate Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
PLoS One. 2024 Mar 27;19(3):e0301190. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301190. eCollection 2024.
Only 34% of Canadian surgeons in 2022 were female. The protracted length of surgical residency training, concerns regarding infertility, and increased rates of obstetrical complications have been shown to contribute to the disproportionate lack of females in surgical specialties.
A novel online survey was sent to all surgical residents in Canada. Respondents were asked about perceptions of pregnancy and parenthood during surgical training, and parents were asked about parental leave, accommodations they received, and pregnancy complications. Chi squared tests were used to compare opinions of male and female residents.
A total of 272/2,419 (11.2%) responses were obtained, with a high response from females (61.8%) and orthopaedic residents (29.0%). There were 56 women reporting 76 pregnancy events during training, 62.5% of which had complications. Notably, 27.3% of men and 86.7% of women 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' that surgeons have higher pregnancy complication rates than the general population (p<0.001). Men were much less likely to believe that pregnant residents should be offered modified duties (74.2% of men, 90.0% of women, p = 0.003). Women were much more likely to experience significant stigma or bias due to their status as a parent (43% of women, 0% of men, p<0.001). Women reported negative comments from others at a higher rate (58.5% of women, 40.7% of men, p = 0.013). Women believe there is negative stigma attached to being pregnant during training (62.7% of women, 42.7% of men, p = 0.01). The limitations of our study include a small sample size and response bias.
Challenges and negative perceptions exist around pregnancy and parenthood in surgical residency, which disproportionately affect women trainees.
2022 年，加拿大仅有 34%的外科医生为女性。漫长的外科住院医师培训时间、对不孕的担忧以及产科并发症发生率的增加，都导致了外科专业中女性比例的严重不足。
我们向加拿大所有外科住院医师发送了一份新的在线调查。调查内容包括受访者在外科培训期间对怀孕和育儿的看法，以及父母对育儿假、所获得的便利措施和怀孕并发症的看法。我们使用卡方检验比较了男女住院医师的意见。
共收到 272/2419（11.2%）份回复，其中女性（61.8%）和骨科住院医师（29.0%）的回复率较高。共有 56 名女性报告了 76 次培训期间的怀孕事件，其中 62.5%有并发症。值得注意的是，27.3%的男性和 86.7%的女性“同意”或“强烈同意”外科医生的怀孕并发症发生率高于一般人群（p<0.001）。男性不太可能认为应该为怀孕的住院医师提供修改后的职责（74.2%的男性，90.0%的女性，p = 0.003）。由于她们作为父母的身份，女性更有可能经历严重的耻辱或偏见（43%的女性，0%的男性，p<0.001）。女性报告说，其他人对她们的负面评价更高（58.5%的女性，40.7%的男性，p = 0.013）。女性认为在培训期间怀孕会带来负面耻辱（62.7%的女性，42.7%的男性，p = 0.01）。我们研究的局限性包括样本量小和回复偏差。
外科住院医师培训期间的怀孕和育儿存在挑战和负面看法，这对外科住院医师中的女性受训者产生了不成比例的影响。
