Surgical experiences of final-year undergraduates and the impact on their career aspiration stratified by sex/gender

Surgical undergraduate training takes place in a male-dominated work environment that struggles with recruitment problems. Experiences of cultural and sex/gender-specific barriers of women in surgery have been reported worldwide. Overall, the experiences that students have in coping with the emotional impact of surgery as a profession are thought to be crucial to their subsequent career choices. We investigated whether students' self-reported experiences differed by sex/gender in terms of frequency and content, and whether they were related to their career aspirations. In Germany, the final year represents the last part of the undergraduate medical study program. At the Mannheim Medical Faculty, a 12-week surgical training is mandatory. After completing their surgical training, the students were asked about their experiences and their later career aspirations. These experiences were analysed using quantitative content analysis. The relationship between the quality of experience and career aspirations as well as sex/gender differences were statistically measured. In the 475 questionnaires analysed (response rate 52%), the number of positive and negative mentions does not differ by sex/gender. However, male students feel more actively involved and female students feel poorly briefed and think that supervisors are less interested in their training. A significant influence on career aspirations was found in the category for female and male students, and in the category for female students. The positive experiences that students gain while performing surgical activities have an impact on their subsequent career choices. In particular, a good settling-in period and encouragement to actively participate could help to attract more women to surgery.