Division of Surgery and Interventional Sciences, UCL Medical School, London, United Kingdom.
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Swansea Bay University Health Board, United Kingdom.
Surgeon. 2024 Oct;22(5):286-289. doi: 10.1016/j.surge.2024.06.002. Epub 2024 Jul 18.
Cardiothoracic surgery has reported poor equality, diversity, and inclusion amongst its faculty [1-3]. We explored how gender, ethnicity, and disability influence medical students' interest in cardiothoracic surgery as a career choice, as well as overall exposure to cardiothoracic surgery in the undergraduate curriculum.
We distributed a 26-item Google Forms online survey to student members of a medical education group from all 37 UK medical schools via social media. Respondents were asked to rank different 'factors of interest' on a 1-5 Likert scale (1 = not important at all, 5 = very important) and were encouraged to add free-text comments. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS.
There were 258 respondents, 62% identifying as female and 38% male. Respondents' ethnicities were 45% White, 44% Asian or Asian British, and 11% from other ethnic groups. 11% of respondents confirmed 'long-standing illness or disability'. Men were almost twice as likely to consider a career in cardiothoracic surgery than women (33% vs 19%; p < 0.001). Women were more likely than men to feel that their gender, lack of a similarly gendered mentor, and long working hours were important factors when considering cardiothoracic surgery as a career. Ethnicity of the respondent did not appear to affect how they perceived the challenges of a career in cardiothoracic surgery. Interestingly, 'long-standing illness or disability' did not significantly affect the decision making to consider this specialty as a career. Overall, 73% of respondents reported not having adequate exposure to cardiothoracic surgery at medical school and agreed they would benefit from more time.
Female medical students felt their gender, lack of same-sex role models, and perceived long working hours were barriers in considering cardiothoracic surgery as a career. All students felt the need for more exposure to Cardiothoracic Surgery in the undergraduate curriculum.
心胸外科的教职员工中报告存在较差的平等、多样性和包容性[1-3]。我们探讨了性别、种族和残疾如何影响医学生对心胸外科作为职业选择的兴趣，以及本科课程中对心胸外科的整体接触。
我们通过社交媒体向来自英国所有 37 所医学院的医学教育团体的学生成员分发了一份 26 项的谷歌表单在线调查。受访者被要求在 1-5 的李克特量表上对不同的“兴趣因素”进行排名（1=一点也不重要，5=非常重要），并鼓励他们添加自由文本评论。使用 SPSS 分析定量数据。
共有 258 名受访者，其中 62%为女性，38%为男性。受访者的种族为 45%白人，44%亚裔或亚裔英国人，11%来自其他种族群体。11%的受访者确认自己患有“长期疾病或残疾”。男性考虑心胸外科职业的可能性几乎是女性的两倍（33%比 19%；p<0.001）。与男性相比，女性更有可能认为自己的性别、缺乏同样性别的导师以及工作时间长是考虑心胸外科职业的重要因素。受访者的种族似乎并不影响他们对心胸外科职业挑战的看法。有趣的是，“长期疾病或残疾”并没有显著影响他们决定将该专业作为职业的决策。总的来说，73%的受访者报告说在医学院没有足够的心胸外科接触，并且他们同意自己需要更多的时间。
女性医学生认为自己的性别、缺乏同性别的榜样以及认为工作时间长是考虑心胸外科职业的障碍。所有学生都认为本科课程中需要更多地接触心胸外科。
