The impact of gendered experiences on the career choice of swiss medical students: A qualitative study protocol.

The problem of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in medicine is long-standing and widespread. This project aims to document and understand how gendered experiences encountered by final-year medical students in Switzerland are experienced by these individuals and how they influence their career choice. It also aims to identify representations and stereotypes linked to the different specialties. The project will take place at all Swiss universities offering a master's degree in human medicine, for a total of 9 programs. Around 36 participants will be recruited. Semi-structured qualitative individual interviews will be conducted. Analysis will be based on Grounded Theory principles.

Exploring Medical Career Choice to Better Inform Swiss Physician Workforce Planning: Protocol for a National Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: A medical student's career choice directly influences the physician workforce shortage and the misdistribution of resources. First, individual and contextual factors related to career choice have been evaluated separately, but their interaction over time is unclear. Second, actual career choice, reasons for this choice, and the influence of national political strategies are currently unknown in Switzerland. OBJECTIVE: The overall objective of this study is to better understand the process of Swiss medical students' career choice and to predict this choice. Our specific aims will be to examine the predominately static (ie, sociodemographic and personality traits) and predominately dynamic (ie, learning context perceptions, anxiety state, motivation, and motives for career choice) variables that predict the career choice of Swiss medical school students, as well as their interaction, and to examine the evolution of Swiss medical students' career choice and their ultimate career path, including an international comparison with French medical students. METHODS: The Swiss Medical Career Choice study is a national, multi-institution, and longitudinal study in which all medical students at all medical schools in Switzerland are eligible to participate. Data will be collected over 4 years for 4 cohorts of medical students using questionnaires in years 4 and 6. We will perform a follow-up during postgraduate training year 2 for medical graduates between 2018 and 2022. We will compare the different Swiss medical schools and a French medical school (the University of Strasbourg Faculty of Medicine). We will also examine the effect of new medical master's programs in terms of career choice and location of practice. For aim 2, in collaboration with the Swiss Institute for Medical Education, we will implement a national career choice tracking system and identify the final career choice of 2 cohorts of medical students who graduated from 4 Swiss medical schools from 2010 to 2012. We will also develop a model to predict their final career choice. Data analysis will be conducted using inferential statistics, and machine learning approaches will be used to refine the predictive model. RESULTS: This study was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation in January 2023. Recruitment began in May 2023. Data analysis will begin after the completion of the first cohort data collection. CONCLUSIONS: Our research will inform national stakeholders and medical schools on the prediction of students' future career choice and on key aspects of physician workforce planning. We will identify targeted actions that may be implemented during medical school and may ultimately influence career choice and encourage the correct number of physicians in the right specialties to fulfill the needs of currently underserved regions. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/53138.

Dynamics of Students' Career Choice: a Conceptual Framework-Based Qualitative Analysis Focusing on Primary Care.

BACKGROUND: Increasing primary care's attractiveness as a career choice is an important task of socially accountable medical schools. Research has broadly studied influences on medical students' career choice. However, a deeper understanding of the processes behind career decision-making could support medical schools in their efforts to promote primary care careers. OBJECTIVE: To explore the dynamics of career choice during medical school with a focus on primary care, based on a previously developed conceptual framework. APPROACH: Qualitative study using a phenomenological, inductive-deductive approach DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Individual interviews were conducted from May 2019 to January 2020 with 14 first-year postgraduate trainee physicians, graduates of the Faculty of Medicine in Geneva, Switzerland, purposively sampled based on their interest in primary care during undergraduate studies. The interview guide was developed to elicit narratives about career-related decision-making. Two authors coded the transcripts. Thematic analysis alternated with data collection until thematic saturation was reached. Emerging themes were discussed and refined within the research team. KEY RESULTS: Two main themes emerged: (1) developing professional identity, expressed as a changing professional image from unprecise and idealistic to concrete and realistic; priorities changed from content-based to lifestyle-based preferences; (2) individual trajectories of career-related decision-making, determined by different stages of refining professional interests; students navigated this process by employing various strategies, ranging from active exploration to passive behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: This study's narrative approach illustrates the dynamic nature of career choice and refines elements of a conceptual framework previously developed by the authors. Its findings underline the importance of exploration, for which personal experiences and observations of physicians' work are crucial. To advance efforts to make primary care a more attractive career, students must be sufficiently exposed to primary care in a safe and individualized environment and should be supported in all stages of their career choice process.

Measuring the Severity of Objective and Subjective Patient-to-Staff Violence in Psychogeriatric and Adult Psychiatric Wards: A Retrospective Study of Four Swiss Hospitals.

Measurement of patient-to-staff violence (PSV) is essential for the institution to prevent negative outcomes and provide effective interventions. Although there are several approaches to doing this in psychiatry, little is known about how well they adapt to different types of wards. The role of gender and age also needs further investigation. The present study aimed to examine and compare characteristics that contribute to the objective and subjective measurement of the severity of PSV in adult (AP) and geriatric (PG) psychiatric wards. Results show that 70% of the reported violence over 30 months (N = 589) was PSV, mostly perpetrated by male patients against nurses. Objective severity ratings were higher in PG than in AP wards, and conversely, subjective ratings were higher in AP than in PG wards. The findings support the systematic measurement of PSV in psychiatric wards and highlight the need for targeted interventions to address the risks associated with minimizing violence.

Validity Evidence of A Screening Tool for Early Detection of Clinical Crisis-Related Anxiety Amongst Medical Students.

Construct: Psychological distress among students is a growing concern in medical education, even more so with the advent of COVID-19 pandemic. Anxiety is among students' mental health issues. High and persistent anxiety has many negative impacts on students' academic and personal life. Early detection is essential for timely intervention. Background: Currently, medical student anxiety is assessed using tools primarily designed for psychiatric purposes. Despite their excellent validity evidence, these tools contain sensitive items and do not explore stressors related to clinical activities. There is a need for contextualized tools to better identify anxiety-provoking factors specific to the medical education environment. Approach: We previously developed the Crisis Experience Rating Scale (CERS-7), a short screening tool to identify early on anxious students participating in clinical activities during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study sought to produce further validity evidence for the CERS-7. Medical students in their clinical years at two Swiss and one French medical school, all involved in COVID-19 clinical activity during the second wave of the pandemic, completed the CERS-7 and the State Anxiety Inventory (STAI-A), the best known and widely used tool to measure for general anxiety. We evaluated internal structure using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and relation to other variables using linear regression (LR) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves with thresholds defined using the Youden index. Findings: There were 372 participants. CFA confirmed the two-factor structure of the CERS-7 scale from first-wave dataset. The CERS-7 total scale and subscales demonstrated validity evidence in relationship to the STAI-A scores and categories. A CERS-7 total scale score < 27.5 identified 93% of severely anxious students. Conclusion: The CERS-7 produces reliable scores to use for monitoring anxiety status when assigning students to clinical settings as well as for improving training conditions during clinical crisis.

Do students' personality traits change during medical training? A longitudinal cohort study.

Many medical schools incorporate assessments of personal characteristics, including personality traits, in their selection process. However, little is known about whether changes in personality traits during medical training affect the predictive validity of personality assessments. The present study addressed this issue by examining the stability of personality traits and their predictive validity over a 6-year medical training course. Participants were two cohorts of Swiss medical students (N = 272, 72% of students admitted to Year 2) from whom we collected demographic data, Swiss medical studies aptitude test (EMS) scores, Big Five personality traits scores measured at three times and scores on the multiple-choice and objective structured clinical examination parts of the final medical examination. Our findings indicated that personality traits had medium-to-high rank-order stability (r > .60 over 3 years and r > .50 over 6 years). Mean-level changes were moderate for agreeableness (d = + 0.72) and small for neuroticism and conscientiousness (d = -0.29, d = -0.25, respectively). Individual reliable change indices ranged from 4.5% for openness to 23.8% for neuroticism. The predictive validity was similar to that of the first three years of follow-up. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate changes in personality across undergraduate curriculum. Medical students' personality traits were mostly stable across medical school and retain their predictive validity. Consequently, this study supports the use of tools measuring constructs underlying personality traits in selection. In addition, this study confirms that examination formats could favor students with certain personality traits.

Dynamics of parasympathetic activity in violent incarcerated offenders before, during, and in recovery from an emotional inhibition task.

Dynamics of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) are hypothesized to play a role in the emergence of interpersonal violence. In the present study, we examined continuous activities of the inhibitory parasympathetic pathway of the ANS through the root mean square of successive differences between normal heartbeats (RMSSD) in 22 male offenders who committed interpersonal violence and 24 matched controls from the general population across three successive phases: resting baseline, while performing an emotional Go/No-Go task, and post-task recovery. Results showed that across the three phases, the offender group presented lower RMSSD at baseline (pFDR = .003; Cohen's d = - 1.11), but similar levels during the task, attributed to a significant increase in their RMSSD level (pFDR = .027, Cohen's d = - 1.26). During recovery, while no distinction between the two groups was found, both groups showed signs of recovering toward baseline values. These findings suggest that violent incarcerated offenders can flexibly engage parasympathetic resources to meet environmental challenges. This underscores the necessity of considering parasympathetic dynamics and its respective mobilization/flexibility to better understand ANS profiles underlying interpersonal violence as well as its potential utility in designing more tailored interventions.

The Utility of Physiological Measures in Assessing the Empathic Skills of Incarcerated Violent Offenders.

Since lack of empathy is an important indicator of violent behaviors, researchers need consistent and valid measures. This study evaluated the practical significance of a potential physiological correlate of empathy compared to a traditional self-report questionnaire in 18 male violent offenders and 21 general population controls. Empathy skills were assessed with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) questionnaire. Heart-Rate Variability (HRV) was assessed with an electrocardiogram. The RMSSD (Root Mean Square of the Successive beat-to-beat Differences), an HRV index implicated in social cognition, was calculated. There were no group differences in IRI scores. However, RMSSD was lower in the offender group. Positive correlations between RMSSD and IRI subscales were found for controls only. We conclude that psychometric measures of empathy do not discriminate incarcerated violent offenders, and that the incorporation of psychophysiological measures, such as HRV, could be an avenue for forensic research on empathy to establish translatable evidence-based information.

Development and Cross-National Validation of a French Version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Students.

Empathy is a multifaceted personal ability combining emotional and cognitive features modulated by cultural specificities. It is widely recognized as a key clinical competence that should be valued during professional training. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy for medical students (JSE-S) has been developed for this purpose and validated in several languages, but not in French. The aims of this study were to gather validity evidence for a newly developed version of the JSE-S and compare it between two French-speaking contexts. In total, 1,433 undergraduate medical students from the universities of Lyon (UL), France and Geneva (UG), Switzerland participated in the study completing the JSE-S in French. Total and partial scores of the three subscales ("perspective taking," "compassionate care" and "walking in patient's shoes") were calculated for each site. Construct validity of the JSE-S was analyzed considering three sources of evidence: content, internal structure and relations to other variables. A first-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis using structural equation modeling examined the three latent variables of the JSE-S subscales. Cronbach's α coefficients were 0.75 (UG) and 0.81 (UL). The items' discrimination power ranged between 0.29 and 1.60 (median effect size of 1.24). The overall correlations between items and total or partial scores derived from the latent JSE-S subscales were consistently similar in both study sites. Findings of this study confirm the latent structure of the JSE-S in French and its cross-national reproducibility. The comparable underlying structure of the questionnaire tested in two distinct French-speaking contexts endorses the generalizability of its measure.

Geneva medical students increasingly identify primary care physicians as role models after introduction of a compulsory clerkship.

BACKGROUND: Role modelling is recognised as an important element in career choice. In strongly hospital-based medical education settings, students identify few primary care physicians as positive role models, which might impact their career plans and potentially contribute to primary care workforce shortage. At Geneva Faculty of Medicine (Switzerland), a compulsory final-year clerkship in primary care practices was introduced to strengthen primary care teaching in the curriculum. OBJECTIVES: To assess the proportion of graduating students identifying a primary care physician as positive role model, before and after the introduction of the clerkship. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey in four consecutive classes of graduating medical students one year before and three years after the introduction of the clerkship. The main outcome measure was the proportion of students in each class citing a primary care physician role model. Comparisons were analysed using Pearson's Chi-square test and one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: The total sample included 505 students. The proportion of students recalling a primary care physician role model increased steadily from 8% (before introduction of the clerkship) to 13, 16, and 21%, respectively, at 1, 2 and 3 years after the introduction of the clerkship (p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Our exploratory study suggests that introducing a compulsory primary care clerkship may have contributed to increasing the visibility of primary care physicians as role models. Future research should explore primary care physicians' awareness of role modelling and its contribution to career choices.

Trajectories of learning approaches during a full medical curriculum: impact on clinical learning outcomes.

BACKGROUND: No consensus exists on whether medical students develop towards more deep (DA) or surface learning approaches (SA) during medical training and how this impacts learning outcomes. We investigated whether subgroups with different trajectories of learning approaches in a medical students' population show different long-term learning outcomes. METHODS: Person-oriented growth curve analyses on a prospective cohort of 269 medical students (Mage=21years, 59 % females) traced subgroups according to their longitudinal DA/SA profile across academic years 1, 2, 3 and 5. Post-hoc analyses tested differences in academic performance between subgroups throughout the 6-year curriculum until the national high-stakes licensing exam certifying the undergraduate medical training. RESULTS: Two longitudinal trajectories emerged: surface-oriented (n = 157; 58 %), with higher and increasing levels of SA and lower and decreasing levels of DA; and deep-oriented (n = 112; 42 %), with lower and stable levels of SA and higher but slightly decreasing levels of DA. Post hoc analyses showed that from the beginning of clinical training, deep-oriented students diverged towards better learning outcomes in comparison with surface-oriented students. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students follow different trajectories of learning approaches during a 6-year medical curriculum. Deep-oriented students are likely to achieve better clinical learning outcomes than surface-oriented students.

And if we had to do it all over again, would we send medical students to the emergency departments during a pandemic? Lessons learned from the COVID-19 outbreak.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased staffing needs in emergency departments. The question quickly arose as to whether it was appropriate to offer medical students the opportunity to assist this staff. The dilemma stems in part from the potential impact on their psychological well-being as well as their academic and clinical performances. We sought to determine the level of anxiety of medical students during the COVID-19 outbreak, and whether it was higher among the students who chose to return to the clinical setting, especially in first-line units (i.e., emergency departments and resuscitation units). In May 2020, 1180/1502 (78.5%) undergraduate medical students at Strasbourg Medical School (France) completed a questionnaire assessing their anxiety and clinical experience. A 2018 cohort of undergraduate medical students served as the baseline. The 2020 COVID cohort had higher rates of anxiety than the 2018 cohort. This difference was specifically observed in the students who chose not to return to the clinical setting during the crisis (N = 684, 59%). At linear regression, the main factors associated with anxiety were gender (p < 0.005) and perceived clinical activity personal conditions (p < 0.001). Employment site, including COVID first-line units, was not correlated with anxiety. Working in the clinical setting during the COVID-19 outbreak is not a risk factor for anxiety in medical students. Instead, it is an active coping strategy, suggesting that there are no barriers to allowing students to return to clinical settings during a pandemic, including first-line units, in terms of their psychological well-being.

Patterns of Change in Approaches to Learning and Their Impact on Academic Performance Among Medical Students: Longitudinal Analysis.

THEORY: Several medical education studies suggest that deep approaches to learning (DA) are associated with better academic performance, whereas surface approaches (SA) are associated with worse academic performance. However, no study has assessed how these approaches change at the individual level during undergraduate medical training and how these trajectories contribute to academic performance. We assessed individual patterns of change in learning approaches throughout five years of medical training to determine whether and how DA and SA evolve during the curriculum and whether initial levels and rates of change predict performance in Year 5. Hypotheses: We hypothesized that (1) medical students have a higher preference for DA in comparison with SA; (2) these preferences change along the medical curriculum; and (3) DA predicts better academic performance. Method: Participants were 268 Geneva medical students (59% female) who completed the revised two-factor study process questionnaire in Years 1, 2, 3, and 5 of their 6-year curriculum. Student academic performance was registered in Year 5. Multivariate latent growth modeling was used to assess individual trajectories in learning approaches and test their associations with performance in Year 5. Results: Medical students were inclined to use DA rather than SA. Nevertheless, from Year 2 onward their use of DA decreased while their use of SA increased. Students with higher initial levels of DA tended to have lower initial levels of SA. Moreover, increases in SA were significantly associated with decreases in DA. However, only initial levels of DA and non-repeater status in Year 1 were positive and significant predictors of academic performance in Year 5. Conclusions: Although students tended to use DA rather than SA when entering medical school, their preferences for DA tended to decline throughout medical training while increasing for SA. Learning approaches during early study years, characterized by engagement and meaningful learning, predicted later academic performance. DA should be promoted during the early years of medical studies to foster student learning and to improve academic performance.

General practitioners' perspectives on barriers to depression care: development and validation of a questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: General practitioners (GPs) regularly feel challenged by the care of depressed patients and may encounter several barriers in providing best management. GPs' perspectives on barriers to depression care are a subject of growing interest but there is a lack of validated assessment tools. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire assessing barriers to depression care (BDC-Q) encountered by GPs in France and the French-speaking part of Switzerland. METHODS: The BDC-Q was constructed in five steps: Item development, content validation, pretesting, testing phase and test-retest reliability. The questionnaire items were generated through a literature search. An expert panel of GPs (n = 16) and psychiatrists (n = 3) validated the content and 20 GPs pretested the questionnaire to provide response process validity evidence. We then tested the questionnaire among 116 GPs and used principal component analysis and internal consistency testing (Cronbach's alpha) to structure it into consistent dimensions. Test-retest reliability using Pearson correlation coefficient was assessed with 30 GPs who completed the questionnaire twice after an interval of at least 2 weeks. RESULTS: The 25 items BDC-Q was structured in five dimensions: (i) provision of care by the general practitioner, (ii) considering patients' attitudes towards depression, (iii) guidance for care, (iv) collaboration with mental health specialists and (v) access to mental health care. CONCLUSIONS: The BDC-Q displays evidence of validity and reliability to meaningfully assess GPs' perspectives on barriers to depression care. It can be used both at a practice level within a quality improvement strategy, and at a broader level, to inform health planners and tailor appropriate strategies to improve depression care in the community.

Empathy trajectories throughout medical school: relationships with personality and motives for studying medicine.

Empathy remains a widely discussed topic within medical education research. Studies on empathy changes among medical students are not univocal: empathy may decline, remain stable or increase. A largely unexplored research question regards inter-individual variability in empathy change, namely if different longitudinal trajectories of empathy exist. Evidence on the association of empathy trajectories with personality and motives for studying medicine is also scarce. Here, latent growth modeling examined empathy (measured with the Jefferson Scale of Empathy) among 201 medical students (Mage = 20.74, 57% females) across three assessments: at entry year (Year 1) and during the first two clinical years (Years 4 and 5). Associations between empathy trajectories, personality in Year 1 and motives for studying medicine in Years 4 and 5 were tested. We identified two empathy trajectory groups: lower and decreasing (n = 59; 29%) and higher and stable (n = 142; 71%). Regression analyses indicated that higher openness in Year 1 was associated with an increased probability of higher and stable group membership (controlling for motives in Year 1). The effect of openness disappeared controlling for motives in Years 4 and 5 while caring for patients (in Years 4 and 5) and altruism (in Year 4) were positively associated with an increased probability of higher and stable group membership. In sum, we observed that empathy remains stable in most medical students and declines in fewer; openness and patients-oriented motives for studying medicine are associated with higher and stable empathy. Encouraging medical students' patients-oriented motives from preclinical throughout clinical years may prevent empathy decline.

Motivational factors influencing student intentions to practise in underserved areas.

CONTEXT: Exploring student intentions to practise in underserved areas (UAs) is necessary to inform the planning and training of the future medical workforce in order to increase effectiveness and fulfil societal needs. However, little is known about the motivational factors influencing these intentions. This paper explores medical students' intentions to practise in UAs and the motivational factors predicting these intentions. METHODS: Eligible participants included graduating medical students from four of the five Swiss medical schools, who self-reported specialty choice, intentions to practise in UAs, and motives that explained their career choices. Chi-squared analysis was used to compare site, gender, specialty choice and UA practice intention. Motives were aggregated to obtain motivational factors using a principal component analysis with varimax rotation. Logistic regression was used to predict the effects of these motivational factors and of gender on UA practice intention. RESULTS: Of 1749 students included in the study, 240 (13.7%) expressed an intention to practise in UAs (62.1% of whom intended to practise in rural areas) and 719 (41.1%) were undecided. In those who wished to practise in UAs, general practice (21.6%) was the most preferred specialty. Motivational factors influencing specialty choice were intellectual challenge, work variety, work conditions and enthusiasm (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index 0.79, P < .001, 49.0% of variance explained). Students motivated by work variety (odds ratio [OR] 1.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-1.7) and by work conditions (OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.1-1.6) were more likely to choose UAs and those motivated by intellectual challenge (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.3-0.5) were less likely. Undecided students' motivations were very similar to those of students interested in working in UAs. CONCLUSIONS: The actual number of Swiss students interested in working in UAs is low and is probably insufficient to meet current societal needs. Work variety and work conditions appear to be factors that might attract interested and undecided students towards working in UAs.

Construct and predictive validity of the Strength of Motivation for Medical School-Revised (SMMS-R) questionnaire: a French validation study.

Motivation is a major indicator of students' learning behaviors. Therefore, researchers require consistent and valid instruments to assess students' motivation. Consequently, motivation has been an important topic in medical education research for the last decade. The present study evaluated the construct and predictive validities of the French version of the Strength of Motivation for Medical School-Revised questionnaire (SMMS-R-FR). Our sample comprised 372 students at three French-speaking medical schools, who filled in the SMMS-R-FR and the Revised two-factor Study Process Questionnaire (R2-SPQ). Results confirmed the three-factor structure of the original SMMS-R questionnaire. Reliabilities were good for the Total Strength of Motivation scale, moderate for the Willingness to Sacrifice and Readiness to Start subscales, and poor (but still acceptable) for the Persistence subscale. Both Total Strength of Motivation and Readiness to Start positively predicted a deep learning approach and negatively predicted a surface learning approach, while Willingness to Sacrifice positively predicted a deep learning approach and Persistence negatively predicted a surface learning approach. Our results both support the SMMS-R- FR's suitability as a tool for measuring motivation in medical students, and suggest that it could be used to guide the development of educational interventions to strengthen motivation.

Motives influencing students' preferences for obstetrics and gynaecology speciality: A cross-sectional multi-site Swiss study.

OBJECTIVES: Knowing and understanding the reasons why medical students choose postgraduate medical specialities are essential to help influence the workforce for a balanced national healthcare system. The objective of this study was to determine motivating factors for choosing a speciality career in general and, more specifically, for the choice of obstetrics and gynaecology (OBGYN) over surgery or general practice. STUDY DESIGN: This study was based on prospectively collected data from a large research multi-site cross-sectional study. We sent a survey to medical students in the sixth year, which contained questions about demographics, choice of speciality and motives for choosing. We grouped the specialities into families of specialities and motives into motivating factors clustered by principal component analysis. We used a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test to identify differences between motivating factors in speciality categories and gender. We performed logistic regression analyse to compare the choice of OBGYN to choices of surgery and general practice as well as undecided. RESULTS: A total of 1749 students responded with an average return rate of 56%. Our study revealed four motivating factors: "experiential", "relational", "occupational" and "scientific". Logistic regression analysis showed that the choice of OBGYN was particularly influenced by "experiential factor" (OR 1.5; 95%CI [1.2; 1.9]) and by gender (OR 4.5; 95%CI [2.2; 9.2]). When we compared the motivational profile of OBGYN to other speciality categories, OBGYN appeared to stand between surgery and general practice for the "experiential" and "relational" factors, more like surgery for the "occupational factor" and more like general practice for the "scientific factor". CONCLUSION: This study highlighted the importance of "experiential factor" and gender for choosing OBGYN as a career. OBGYN seemed to stand between surgery and general practice from a Swiss students' point of view. These findings provide useful information for targeted interventions to promote OBGYN at the undergraduate level. Such interventions could include providing more hands-on experiences, improving integration of male students and encouraging student involvement in patient care.