Characteristics of role models who influenced medical residents to choose surgery as a specialty: exploratory study

Abstract

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Choosing a medical specialty and making decisions concerning a career are difficult processes for medical students and newly graduated physicians. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the influence of role models on the choice of surgery as a career, and to determine the most influential model characteristics. DESIGN AND SETTING: Qualitative analysis on responses to a self-administered questionnaire, in different teaching-learning settings. METHODS:Residents from all years of various surgical subspecialties in a university hospital were included in a survey about the factors that determined their choice of surgery. The questions included items on whether a role model had influenced them in choosing surgery, and the personal or professional characteristics of the models that had been most influential. The responses were subjected to qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Sixty-four out of 96 medical residents participated. Fifty-three residents (82.8%) acknowledged the influence of role models. Sixteen model characteristics were indicated as important, with 136 mentions. Characteristics classified as technical skills (55%), such as "medical knowledge" and "manual dexterity" predominated over humanistic characteristics (35%), such as "patient-physician relationships" and "ethical behavior". However, this difference was not statistically significant (Fisher test, P = 0.11). There were no age differences regarding the proportions mentioning "technical" and "non-technical" attributes, but female residents mentioned significantly more technical skills than their male colleagues did. CONCLUSIONS: The influence of role models seems to be an important factor determining the choice of surgery as a career. The influential characteristics of the models include not only technical but also humanistic qualities.

Lost for Words! Defining the Language Around Role Models in Engineering Education

“…Our classification of aspects fits the results of studies about role modeling in other fields, such as health care [30], [31]. These studies used a different classification and terminology.…”

“…These studies used a different classification and terminology. For example, what we call character attributes are "humanistic characteristics" in [31].…”

Does Presence of role Models at Undergraduate Training Level Impact the Choice of Specialization as Maxillofacial Surgery for Young Women Dental Graduates?: Qualitative Study and Review Of Literature

“…SPSS 19 and Excel sheet were used to carry out the statistical analysis of the results. On analyzing the above data through Chi-square test, the p-value was noted to be less than 0.05, indicating the change in perception of the participants after intervention, which is attendance of online seminars in this case.…”

“…There are various studies which discuss gender differences in surgical specialties in medicine as well as dentistry. The factors which lead to these differences are gender bias, long training period, and work-life balance, lack of family, and social support system [18][19][20][21][22][23]. One important finding which all studies highlight repeatedly is lack of sufficient role models and women leaders in the field.…”

Role Model Characteristics and Impact of Role Models on Medical Students’ Specialty Choices (difficult to catch the concept! can it be “Medical teacher’s role model characteristics and their impact on student’s carrier choice”?)

“…These processes are important not only for individuals but also for healthcare systems, as they have implications in medical workforce planning. A number of different factors are known to influence medical specialty choice, including gender, personality features, academic interests, specialty characteristics and training demands, curricular and extracurricular past experiences, financial aspects and lifestyle expectations 4 . Positive role models influence the actions of those who consider them as role models and they also motivate them to uncover the true potentials to overcome their weaknesses.…”