Factors affecting the choice of becoming a neurosurgeon in the western region of Saudi Arabia

Khalid Talal Alghamdi; Ahmad Abdullah Alamoudi; Mohammed Abdullah Bomonther; Haitham Ali Alasmari; Kenan Hatem Nejaim; Afnan Mahfouz Samman; Moajeb Turki Alzahrani; Abdulhadi Y Algahtani

doi:10.25259/SNI_226_2022

Factors affecting the choice of becoming a neurosurgeon in the western region of Saudi Arabia

Surg Neurol Int. 2022 Sep 16:13:424. doi: 10.25259/SNI_226_2022. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Khalid Talal Alghamdi¹, Ahmad Abdullah Alamoudi¹, Mohammed Abdullah Bomonther¹, Haitham Ali Alasmari¹, Kenan Hatem Nejaim¹, Afnan Mahfouz Samman², Moajeb Turki Alzahrani², Abdulhadi Y Algahtani²

Affiliations

¹ College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Science, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Surgery, Section of Neurosurgery, King Abdulaziz Medical City National Guard Health Affairs, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Background: The preference of medical specialty for students can start even before enrollment into medical school, or as late as following their graduation. During their senior years, students often get a prospective on the working environment and the difficulties faced in the field. This, along with other factors, can strongly alter their career choice. This study aims to explore the degree of interest in neurosurgical specialty among medical students and the factors influencing their choice of becoming a neurosurgeon in the western region of Saudi Arabia.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which was done across three universities of the western region of Saudi Arabia including King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Umm Al Qura University, and King Abdulaziz University.

Results: A sample of 1023 students from the second medical year up to the internship was conducted, and out of them, 585 (57.2%) were males and 438 (42.8%) were females. Three hundred and fifty-nine (35.1%) of the students were interested in neurosurgery, while 664 (64.9%) were not. The data show that females have more interest (40.8% of females) compared to males (35.1% of males). Furthermore, there was a general trend toward a decrease in the interest in neurosurgery with time. The impact on patients "rewarding feeling" was the most reported attraction to the specialty, followed by income. Stress was the most reported deterring factor among students. Neurosurgery is one of the most challenging specialties, yet it is still considered one of the most competitive ones.

Conclusion: Many factors have been found to influence medical students' choices to apply for neurosurgical training as we described. Interestingly, we noted higher interest among female students, and among college freshmen compared to their counterparts. Further studies should be conducted on a larger scale to analyze these findings.

Keywords: Neurosurgery; Neurosurgery’s attractive; Neurosurgery’s students; Students interest.