Medical Students’ Perceptions of Surgeons: Implications for Teaching and Recruitment

• Published in: Journal of surgical education Vol. 72; no. 6; pp. 1195 - 1199
• Main Authors: Braun, Hillary J., BA, Dusch, Marie N., BSc, Park, Sarah H., MD, O’Sullivan, Patricia S., EdD, Harari, Avital, MD, Harleman, Elizabeth, MD, Ascher, Nancy L., MD, PhD, FACS
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-11-2015
• Subjects: Attitude; Behavior; demeanor; Education, Medical; Female; gender; Gender Identity; Humans; Interpersonal and Communication Skills; Male; medical student; Personnel Selection; Practice-Based Learning and Improvement; Professionalism; Students, Medical - psychology; surgeon; Surgeons; Surgery; Young Adult; demeanor; gender; surgeon; Practice-Based Learning and Improvement; medical student; Interpersonal and Communication Skills; Professionalism
• ISSN: 1931-7204; 1878-7452
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2015.05.014

Objective The purpose of this study was to assess first-year medical students’ implicit perceptions of surgeons, focusing on the roles of gender and demeanor (communal = supportive, associated with women; agentic = assertive, associated with men). Design Survey study. Each survey had 1 of 8 possible scenarios; all began with a short description of a surgeon who was described as accomplished and well trained, then varied by surgeon gender (male/female), surgeon demeanor (agentic/communal), and type of surgery (breast cancer/lung cancer). Using a 0 to 5 scale, respondents rated their perception of the surgeon through 5 questions. These 5 items were averaged to create a composite perception score scaled from 0 to 5. Setting Surveys were administered at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Participants We administered surveys to 333 first-year medical students who could read English and voluntarily agreed to participate. Results A total of 238 students responded (71.5%). They preferred the communal vs agentic surgeon (4.2 ± 0.7 vs 3.9 ± 0.7, p = 0.002) and male medical students perceived surgeons more favorably than female medical students did (4.2 ± 0.6 vs 4.0 ± 0.8, p = 0.036). The preference score did not differ according to surgeon gender (female 4.12 vs male 3.98, p = 0.087). There were no significant interactions between the factors of student gender, surgeon gender, or demeanor. Students who reported an interest in surgery as a career did not perceive surgeons more favorably than the students interested in other fields (4.3 ± 0.7 vs 4.0 ± 0.7 respectively, p = 0.066). Conclusions Based on our findings, surgeon educators would likely find success in teaching and recruiting medical students by employing a communal demeanor in their interactions with all students, regardless of the students’ gender or stated interest in surgery.