Hillary J Braun1, Marie N Dusch1, Sarah H Park2, Patricia S O'Sullivan3, Avital Harari4, Elizabeth Harleman5, Nancy L Ascher6. 1. School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California. 2. School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. 3. 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. 4. Department of Surgery, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. 5. Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California. 6. Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Electronic address: nancy.ascher@ucsfmedctr.org.
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). DESIGN: 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. SETTING: Surveys were administered at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Los Angeles. PARTICIPANTS: 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.
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). DESIGN: 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. SETTING: Surveys were administered at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Los Angeles. PARTICIPANTS: 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: Amal Thomas; Aasim Nisar Murtaza; Harry Victor Michael Spiers; Alexander Zargaran; Mohammed Turki; Jai Mathur; Akiko Fukui; David Zargaran; Omar Khan Journal: Ann Med Surg (Lond) Date: 2018-11-10