General surgery resident’s perspective towards general surgery residency in Pakistan and allotment of surgical cases to them: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: General surgery residency is considered a stressful field with residents facing many problems including learning operative procedures, competition with fellow colleagues, gender discrimination and balancing their marital and family life.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-structured questionnaire, containing questions about perspective of general surgical residents about residency structure and problems in Pakistan and about allotment of surgical procedures to them. A total of 1624 general surgical residents were conveniently enrolled in this study from different tertiary care hospitals of Pakistan.Results: Mean age of residents was 29 years (range 24-35 years).70.44% of residents were male while 29.55% were female. Majority of the residents were from 2nd year residency (30.66%). 889 (54.7%) of the residents thought that the general surgery residency had put negative effects on their family and marital life while 1365 (84%) stated that they suffered from anxiety depression sleep deprivation at some time during the residency (p<0.01). 864 (53.2%) residents disagreed that surgical procedures are allotted according to the year of residency.901 (55.4%) residents were not sure that buttering their seniors will get them more cases. 887 (54.6%) were unsure about gender discrimination in the general surgery (p<0.01).Conclusions: Gender discrimination in general surgery is now obsolete. Main factor in the allotment of operative procedure is the responsible behaviour of the resident, past operative records and level of pre-and post-operative care of the patients. Grid system should be adopted for the allotment of surgical procedures.