When surgeons decide to become surgeons: new opportunities for surgical education.
BACKGROUND
When surgeons decide to become surgeons has important implications. If the decision is made prior to or early in medical school, surgical education can be more focused on surgical diseases and resident skills.


METHODS
To determine when surgeons - compared with their nonsurgical colleagues - decide on their medical path, residents in surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and emergency medicine were surveyed. Timing of residency choice, demographic data, personal goals, and reason for residency choice were queried.


RESULTS
A total of 234 residents responded (53 surgical residents). Sixty-two percent of surgeons reported that they were "fairly certain" of surgery before medical school, 13% decided during their preclinical years, and 25% decided during their clerkship years. This compares with an aggregate 40%, 7%, and 54%, respectively, for the other 5 residency specialties. These differences were statistically significant (P = .001). When the 234 residents were asked about their primary motivation for choosing their field, 51% pointed to expected job satisfaction and 44% to intellectual curiosity, and only 3% mentioned lifestyle, prestige, or income.


CONCLUSIONS
General surgery residents decide on surgery earlier than residents in other programs. This may be advantageous, resulting in fast-tracking of these medical students in acquiring surgical knowledge, undertaking surgical research, and early identification for surgical residency programs. Surgical training in the era of the 80-hour work week could be enhanced if medical students bring much deeper knowledge of surgery to their first day of residency.
Department of Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: mark.hochberg@nyumc.org.
Mark S
MS
Hochberg
Department of Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Jessica
J
Billig
Department of Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Russell S
RS
Berman
Department of Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Adina L
AL
Kalet
Department of Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Sondra R
SR
Zabar
Department of Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Jaclyn R
JR
Fox
Department of Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
H Leon
HL
Pachter
D000328:Adult; D002321:Career Choice; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000379:methods*; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D013043:Specialties, Surgical / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
Careers in surgery; Choosing surgery; Medical education; Residency choice; Surgery; Surgical education