title: Medical Students' Perceptions of Surgeons: Implications for Teaching and Recruitment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to assess first-year medical students' implicit perceptions of surgeons, focusing on the roles of gender and demeanor (communal = supportive, associated with women; agentic = assertive, associated with men).
  
  
  METHODS
  Survey study. Each survey had 1 of 8 possible scenarios; all began with a short description of a surgeon who was described as accomplished and well trained, then varied by surgeon gender (male/female), surgeon demeanor (agentic/communal), and type of surgery (breast cancer/lung cancer). Using a 0 to 5 scale, respondents rated their perception of the surgeon through 5 questions. These 5 items were averaged to create a composite perception score scaled from 0 to 5.
  
  
  METHODS
  Surveys were administered at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Los Angeles.
  
  
  METHODS
  We administered surveys to 333 first-year medical students who could read English and voluntarily agreed to participate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 238 students responded (71.5%). They preferred the communal vs agentic surgeon (4.2 ± 0.7 vs 3.9 ± 0.7, p = 0.002) and male medical students perceived surgeons more favorably than female medical students did (4.2 ± 0.6 vs 4.0 ± 0.8, p = 0.036). The preference score did not differ according to surgeon gender (female 4.12 vs male 3.98, p = 0.087). There were no significant interactions between the factors of student gender, surgeon gender, or demeanor. Students who reported an interest in surgery as a career did not perceive surgeons more favorably than the students interested in other fields (4.3 ± 0.7 vs 4.0 ± 0.7 respectively, p = 0.066).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on our findings, surgeon educators would likely find success in teaching and recruiting medical students by employing a communal demeanor in their interactions with all students, regardless of the students' gender or stated interest in surgery.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: Hillary J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: Marie N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Dusch
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Sarah H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Research and Development in Medical Education, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: Patricia S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: O'Sullivan
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Avital
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harari
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Harleman
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Electronic address: nancy.ascher@ucsfmedctr.org.
authors.forename: Nancy L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Ascher
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D001519:Behavior; D004501:Education, Medical; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010560:Personnel Selection; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D066231:Surgeons; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Interpersonal and Communication Skills; Practice-Based Learning and Improvement; Professionalism; demeanor; gender; medical student; surgeon