TY - JOUR
T1 - Neurosurgery in Saudi Arabia
T2 - Navigating Through Future Pathways and Students' Perspectives
AU - Al Sadah, Zhra Muneer
AU - Altalib, Amer Ayman
AU - Al-Jehani, Hosam Maher
N1 - Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 2024/7
Y1 - 2024/7
N2 - BACKGROUND: Neurosurgery is a surgical discipline that demands comprehensive knowledge in other specialties. It is regarded as one of the most competitive specialties. However, there is a new trend toward considering life-style friendly specialties. Therefore, this study aims to assess the neurosurgery perception and identify potential factors influencing such attitudes.METHODS: An observational, survey-based study was conducted on medical students at the College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia. An online-based questionnaire was administered to the participants. It consisted of 2 main parts: the first part collected demographic data, while the second part included 20 Likert scale-based questions. Pearson's χ
2 test was utilized, with statistical significance set at P < 0.05.
RESULTS: A total of 305 medical students from various academic years participated in the questionnaire survey, with nearly an equal gender distribution. Remarkably, a significant majority (76.72%) expressed uncertainty or disagreement regarding the adequacy of neurosurgery education during their medical studies. While a substantial portion of participants (69.5%) found neurosurgery intriguing, almost half (47.87%) indicated that they would not pursue it as their future specialty. The consideration of neurosurgery as a career path showed statistically significant differences in relation to both gender and academic year (P = 0.009 and P < 0.001, respectively).CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes how gender and academic year affect choosing neurosurgery as a career but notes limitations like self-reporting bias and a single-institution scope, which may affect generalizability. Future research might consider national summer training programs to engage more students in neurosurgery.
AB - BACKGROUND: Neurosurgery is a surgical discipline that demands comprehensive knowledge in other specialties. It is regarded as one of the most competitive specialties. However, there is a new trend toward considering life-style friendly specialties. Therefore, this study aims to assess the neurosurgery perception and identify potential factors influencing such attitudes.METHODS: An observational, survey-based study was conducted on medical students at the College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia. An online-based questionnaire was administered to the participants. It consisted of 2 main parts: the first part collected demographic data, while the second part included 20 Likert scale-based questions. Pearson's χ
2 test was utilized, with statistical significance set at P < 0.05.
RESULTS: A total of 305 medical students from various academic years participated in the questionnaire survey, with nearly an equal gender distribution. Remarkably, a significant majority (76.72%) expressed uncertainty or disagreement regarding the adequacy of neurosurgery education during their medical studies. While a substantial portion of participants (69.5%) found neurosurgery intriguing, almost half (47.87%) indicated that they would not pursue it as their future specialty. The consideration of neurosurgery as a career path showed statistically significant differences in relation to both gender and academic year (P = 0.009 and P < 0.001, respectively).CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes how gender and academic year affect choosing neurosurgery as a career but notes limitations like self-reporting bias and a single-institution scope, which may affect generalizability. Future research might consider national summer training programs to engage more students in neurosurgery.
KW - Medical education
KW - Medical student
KW - Neurosurgery
KW - Saudi Arabia
KW - Specialization
KW - Humans
KW - Male
KW - Young Adult
KW - Students, Medical/psychology
KW - Neurosurgery/education
KW - Career Choice
KW - Female
KW - Surveys and Questionnaires
KW - Adult
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85194743806&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85194743806&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.wneu.2024.04.140
DO - 10.1016/j.wneu.2024.04.140
M3 - Article
C2 - 38685344
AN - SCOPUS:85194743806
SN - 1878-8750
VL - 187
SP - e649-e655
JO - World neurosurgery
JF - World neurosurgery
ER -