TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender Differences in Medical Students’ Perception of Neurosurgery
T2 - A Cross-Sectional Study from Pakistan
AU - Shakir, Muhammad
AU - Altaf, Ahmed
AU - Irshad, Hammad Atif
AU - Ali, Eisha Abid
AU - Khowaja, Aly Hamza
AU - Shahzad, Akmal
AU - Adil, Amna
AU - Qadri, Haseeb Mehmood
AU - Faisal, Zainab
AU - Enam, Syed Ather
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2024/3
Y1 - 2024/3
N2 - Background: Despite 15,000 annual medical graduates, few choose neurosurgery, especially women. The scarcity of female neurosurgeons is a global concern, particularly in resource-limited settings such as Pakistan. This study focuses on gender-based differences in medical student perceptions of neurosurgery in Pakistan. Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted from March 6 to April 20, 2023, using a Web-based survey. Data collectors were recruited through an ambassadorship program, distributed evenly across all provinces. A questionnaire was used after a pilot study. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 26 and STATA 15. Results: A total of 2353 medical students participated in the study, of which 63.4% were female and 36.5% were male. Around 40.3% of women strongly agreed to the existence of potential gender bias in neurosurgery, in contrast to their corresponding male students, at 17.3%. Some of the highlighted deterring factors in pursuing neurosurgery as a career according to women include longer training duration (44.6%), poor work–life balance (41%), limited residency slots (50.6%), and limited exposure to neurosurgery (45.1%). Other factors included the high-intensity nature of training (33.6%), perceived gender bias (31.4%), competitive work environment (29.1%), complex surgical skills (38.6%), required level of medical knowledge (29.6%), and financial burden (33.9%). Conclusions: Our study shows that female students are more likely to believe in the existence of potential gender bias in the field compared with their counterpart male participants, which highlights the graveness of the situation in view of the evident paucity of female neurosurgeons in the country.
AB - Background: Despite 15,000 annual medical graduates, few choose neurosurgery, especially women. The scarcity of female neurosurgeons is a global concern, particularly in resource-limited settings such as Pakistan. This study focuses on gender-based differences in medical student perceptions of neurosurgery in Pakistan. Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted from March 6 to April 20, 2023, using a Web-based survey. Data collectors were recruited through an ambassadorship program, distributed evenly across all provinces. A questionnaire was used after a pilot study. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 26 and STATA 15. Results: A total of 2353 medical students participated in the study, of which 63.4% were female and 36.5% were male. Around 40.3% of women strongly agreed to the existence of potential gender bias in neurosurgery, in contrast to their corresponding male students, at 17.3%. Some of the highlighted deterring factors in pursuing neurosurgery as a career according to women include longer training duration (44.6%), poor work–life balance (41%), limited residency slots (50.6%), and limited exposure to neurosurgery (45.1%). Other factors included the high-intensity nature of training (33.6%), perceived gender bias (31.4%), competitive work environment (29.1%), complex surgical skills (38.6%), required level of medical knowledge (29.6%), and financial burden (33.9%). Conclusions: Our study shows that female students are more likely to believe in the existence of potential gender bias in the field compared with their counterpart male participants, which highlights the graveness of the situation in view of the evident paucity of female neurosurgeons in the country.
KW - Gender disparity
KW - Medical students
KW - Neurosurgery
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85181716526&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.wneu.2023.12.016
DO - 10.1016/j.wneu.2023.12.016
M3 - Article
C2 - 38070737
AN - SCOPUS:85181716526
SN - 1878-8750
VL - 183
SP - 5
EP - 13
JO - World Neurosurgery
JF - World Neurosurgery
ER -