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. 2022 Sep 16:13:424.
doi: 10.25259/SNI_226_2022. eCollection 2022.

Factors affecting the choice of becoming a neurosurgeon in the western region of Saudi Arabia

Khalid Talal Alghamdi  1 , Ahmad Abdullah Alamoudi  1 , Mohammed Abdullah Bomonther  1 , Haitham Ali Alasmari  1 , Kenan Hatem Nejaim  1 , Afnan Mahfouz Samman  2 , Moajeb Turki Alzahrani  2 , Abdulhadi Y Algahtani  2
Affiliations

Factors affecting the choice of becoming a neurosurgeon in the western region of Saudi Arabia

Khalid Talal Alghamdi et al. Surg Neurol Int. .

Abstract

Background: The preference of medical specialty for students can start even before enrollment into medical school, or as late as following their graduation. During their senior years, students often get a prospective on the working environment and the difficulties faced in the field. This, along with other factors, can strongly alter their career choice. This study aims to explore the degree of interest in neurosurgical specialty among medical students and the factors influencing their choice of becoming a neurosurgeon in the western region of Saudi Arabia.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which was done across three universities of the western region of Saudi Arabia including King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Umm Al Qura University, and King Abdulaziz University.

Results: A sample of 1023 students from the second medical year up to the internship was conducted, and out of them, 585 (57.2%) were males and 438 (42.8%) were females. Three hundred and fifty-nine (35.1%) of the students were interested in neurosurgery, while 664 (64.9%) were not. The data show that females have more interest (40.8% of females) compared to males (35.1% of males). Furthermore, there was a general trend toward a decrease in the interest in neurosurgery with time. The impact on patients "rewarding feeling" was the most reported attraction to the specialty, followed by income. Stress was the most reported deterring factor among students. Neurosurgery is one of the most challenging specialties, yet it is still considered one of the most competitive ones.

Conclusion: Many factors have been found to influence medical students' choices to apply for neurosurgical training as we described. Interestingly, we noted higher interest among female students, and among college freshmen compared to their counterparts. Further studies should be conducted on a larger scale to analyze these findings.

Keywords: Neurosurgery; Neurosurgery’s attractive; Neurosurgery’s students; Students interest.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
This graph showing the attractive factors for neurosurgery for both interested and not interested students.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
This graph showing the deterring factors for neurosurgery for both interested and not interested students.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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