Introduction: This survey was conducted to explore the perceptions of undergraduate (UG) medical students regarding enrolling in a neurosurgical training program. The purpose was to understand' expectations, reasons, apprehensions, and variables influencing students' decisions to pursue a career in neurosurgery. The results shed light on students' perceptions and can help educational institutions and training programs draw in and encourage aspiring neurosurgeons.
Methods: A 35-point online questionnaire was created using Google Forms (Google LLC) after content and face validation and circulated using social media platforms among various public medical colleges across India. Responses were collected over a period of 3 months, from February 2023 to April 2023. A 5-point Likert scale was used to collect the responses wherever applicable.
Results: A total of 1042 respondents from 47 medical colleges completed the survey. The majority of the students were not exposed to neurosurgery during their UG program, but despite this, 60.1% (n = 627) were willing to consider it as their career option. Around 91.4% of the respondents perceived neurosurgery to be a challenging but prestigious specialty that has a long learning curve and the worst work-life balance when compared with other specialties. The majority of the respondents (strongly disagree = 24.3%, n = 253; disagree = 31.7%, n = 330) did not view neurosurgery as a male-dominated specialty. Most students preferred a 6-year training program over a 3-year program (P = 0.001) if their medical college had such a course.
Conclusions: Our study reveals that although a majority of the UG students would like to join neurosurgery residency, there are significant barriers in the form of less exposure, negative perceptions, and apprehensions toward the branch. Enhancing medical students' awareness about neurosurgery necessitates the integration of hands-on workshops, simulation-based training, didactic lectures, and neurosurgery rotations into the UG curriculum.
Keywords: Google forms; Lower middle-income countries; Medical students; Neurosurgery residency; Perceptions about neurosurgery; Undergraduates.
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