Concerns for Future of Surgical Workforce
Wednesday, 25 June, 2014
A new report claims that at a time when the number of surgeons in Australasia needs to be growing, medical student interest in surgery as a career is stagnant, raising serious concerns for the surgical workforce of the future.
An article in the latest issue of the ANZ Journal of Surgery states a recent study at Griffith University has found that only around 20 per cent of medical students were interested in a surgical career.
The report only compounds the warnings by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in its 2011 paper, Surgical Workforce Projection that noted surgeon numbers would need to grow drastically to meet the demands of an ageing population, particularly as the surgeon population was also ageing.
In order to assess career choices, Griffith University medical students from first year to fourth year were asked to what extent 鈥榓cademic interest鈥, 鈥榣ength of training time鈥, 鈥榟ours of work鈥, 鈥榣ifestyle鈥, 鈥榗areer opportunities鈥, 鈥榓bility to help people鈥 and 鈥榬ole models鈥 were important in selecting a career.
Students interested in a career in surgery rated 鈥榓cademic鈥 and 鈥榗areer opportunities鈥 higher than the perhaps daunting stereotypes of 鈥榮urgical training鈥 and 鈥榳ork hours鈥, and were motivated to undertake a medical degree primarily to help others.
Mr Phil Truskett, Chair of the Board of Surgical Education and Training at the College, said with the movement towards postgraduate medical degrees, structured surgical teaching is sure to miss out.
鈥淪tudents with a surgical interest are banding together and approaching the College and specialty societies to support them,鈥 Mr Truskett said.
鈥淚t is a clear call for the surgical community to be advocates for surgical content in medical school curriculum.鈥
Surgeons have bemoaned the lack of surgical skill exposure and the absence of anatomy teaching in medical degrees in recent years to the point where some have led the reintroduction of courses with the help of pro-bono surgical Trainees and Surgeons (Anatomy success for medical students, June 2012).
The study also reaffirmed the importance of mentors with 31 per cent of those students interested in surgery having a surgical mentor influencing their career choices
'Enhanced cleaning' cuts hospital-acquired infections by one-third
Australian researchers who introduced so-called 'enhanced cleaning' measures onto several...
Improving success rates: lactic acid in IVF
The co-author of research published in Biomolecules explains how the metabolism of the...
Hep C point-of-care test helps marginalised populations
A program using diagnostic technologies at the 'point of care' is helping combat...