title: The choice of surgical specialization by medical students and their syncopal history.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of the study was to assess whether medical students' fainting outside the university or while witnessing surgical procedures and/or autopsies influenced their choice of a specialization.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study group consisted of 605 medical students (from fourth to sixth year of study) from five medical universities in Poland (325 women, 212 men and 8 responders of an unspecified gender). The median age of subjects studied was 23 years, and the interquartile range was 23-24 years. The students at each university were chosen randomly by the author who worked there and had contact with them. An anonymous questionnaire was developed to gather information regarding demographics, the specialization which each student wanted to choose, the syncope occurrence in the medical history, the syncope and presyncope occurrence during surgery and autopsy as well as the syncopal events' characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The group of 15% of women and 30% of men declared to have pursued the surgical specialization (P<0.001), 29% of women and 56% of men declared the intention to pursue an invasive specialization (P<0.001). As many as 36.0% of women studied and 13.1% of men studied reported syncopal spells outside university (P<0.001). Only 41 students (6.8%) reported that syncope or presyncope in any studied circumstances had an impact on their specialization choice. The multivariate analysis showed that the choice of surgical specialization is related to the male gender and the absence of syncopal spells outside the university.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Syncopal and presyncopal spells may affect the professional choices of the medical students. The male gender and a lack of syncope occurrence outside operating room are related to the choice of surgical specialization.
authors: Department of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Proctology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław, Poland.
authors: Jerzy
authors: J
authors: Rudnicki
authors: Dorota
authors: D
authors: Zyśko
authors: Dariusz
authors: D
authors: Kozłowski
authors: Wiktor
authors: W
authors: Kuliczkowski
authors: Edward
authors: E
authors: Koźluk
authors: Małgorzata
authors: M
authors: Lelonek
authors: Agnieszka
authors: A
authors: Piątkowska
authors: Jacek
authors: J
authors: Gajek
authors: Marta
authors: M
authors: Negrusz-Kawecka
authors: Anil Kumar
authors: AK
authors: Agrawal
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011044:Poland; D012737:Sex Factors; D013043:Specialties, Surgical / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013575:Syncope / Q000523:psychology*
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