ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the lives of healthcare workers due to the frontline nature of their work. Their hard work and sacrifice have forged new perceptions of healthcare workers. These changes may potentially influence students' interest in medicine. This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected premedical students' decisions to pursue medicine as a career. Methods: A cross-sectional study using a self-designed online questionnaire was carried out amongst pre-medical students across Pakistan. Results: A total of 1695 students from 93 public and private schools filled in the survey. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly more pre-medical students want to pursue medicine (60.7%-62.9%) and less are unsure (20.2%-17%). Students are significantly more likely to be motivated to pursue medicine due to altruistic benefits to society (57% vs. 62.7%) and be deterred by the risk of contracting infections on duty (10%-14.6%). There is a minor but significant increase in the popularity of internal medicine (17.1%-18.9%), public health (4.1% vs. 5.7%), emergency medicine (3.8% vs. 5.7%), pediatrics (3.8% vs. 4.7%), and radiology (2.1% vs. 2.9%). Most pre-medical students felt that doctors routinely undergo physical and emotional turmoil (84%). Conclusions: Although awareness of hardships faced by medical professionals has increased, motivation to pursue medicine has grown. Through understanding trends in the motivations of students to pursue medicine, medical schools can accommodate the expectations of incoming students and reach out to potential applicants.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: While gender disparities in surgery are documented worldwide, it is unclear to what extent women consider surgery as a career before embarking on their medical school journey. This study aimed to report the percentage of pre-medical women in Pakistan who intend to eventually specialize in surgery and assess the factors motivating and deterring this decision. METHODS: An online survey was conducted among female pre-medical (high school) students across Pakistan. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine motivating and deterring factors associated with the intention to pursue surgery. RESULTS: Out of 1219 female high-school students, 764 (62.7) intended to join medical school. Among these 764, only 9.8% reported an exclusive intent to pursue surgery, while just 20.3% reported considering other specialties in addition to surgery. Significant motivators to pursue surgery exclusively were the intellectual satisfaction of pursuing surgery (adjusted odds ratio: 2.302), having opportunities to travel internationally for work (2.300) and use cutting-edge technology (2.203), interest in the specialty of surgery (2.031), the social prestige of becoming a surgeon (1.910), and considering one's personality well-suited to surgery (1.888). Major deterrents included the lack of interest in surgery (adjusted odds ratio: 3.812), surgical education and training being too difficult (2.440) and lengthy (1.404), and the risk of aggressive behavior from patients (2.239). CONCLUSION: Even before entering medical school, most female pre-medical students have already decided against considering a future surgical career. Deterrents likely stem from women being pressured to conform to deep-seated societal expectations to dedicate their time and energy to domestic responsibilities.
