Assessing awareness and attitude of Egyptian medical students towards emergency medicine as a specialty and career choice: A single-institutional study

Introduction: Emergency medicine (EM) was formally recognized as a specialty in Egypt in 2002. Many institutions of higher education do not yet have an operational academic department of emergency medicine. This study attempts to quantify the awareness and attitude of Ain Shams University medical students towards emergency medicine as both a specialty and a career.

Methods: A paper-based survey was delivered to undergraduate medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt between December 2021 and April 2022. The survey was designed to assess awareness towards the scope of practice of emergency physicians as well as general attitude toward emergency medicine as a specialty and career choice.

Results: A total of 391 students and interns/house officers participated in this study. 53.2% of participants were females and the mean age was 21.65 ± 2.25 years. Only 30 participants (7.7%) were classified as having "Excellent knowledge" of emergency medicine, 92 (23.5%) as "Good knowledge", 158 "40.4%" as "Fair knowledge" and 111 (28.4%) as "Poor knowledge". The difference in scores between academic years was not statistically significant (p = 0.239). 91.8% of respondents favored the creation of student interest groups in EM and 40% of respondents found it difficult to reach information regarding EM.

Conclusion: Our study demonstrates a lack of awareness and knowledge towards emergency medicine as a specialty across all academic years at our institution. Formal recognition of EM as a specialty doesn't guarantee widespread knowledge among medical students, particularly at institutions without academic EM departments.