So, you want to be a neurosurgeon? A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey in medical interns

Abstract

Introduction: There are many elements may affect the influence of medical students toward specialty choosing. Previously, many publications showed that most students that are involved in health areas are unfavorably inclined to neurosurgery as a future specialty.
Objective: To understand the factors which influence a medical trainee´s attraction to neurosurgery. This article is the first in the country to study the impression of medical interns toward neurosurgery.
Method: This study was accomplished in 50 medical interns from México, using a Likert scale survey questionnaire comprising of 15 items and 2 sections.
Results: The majority of participants think that neurosurgical signs are difficult to elicit, neurological history is hard to get, and that most of them 78% aren’t considering brain surgery as a future specialty because that require long training time and it can affect social/family life and another personal goals. On the other hand, most medical interns (88%) acknowledge great prestige and high income are associated to neurosurgery.
Conclusions: This study is consistent with the reported low demand of neurosurgery as a career option and draw attention to some sectors that can be targeted to improve the student’ appreciation of neurosurgery as a specialty.