Recruitment in Surgery and Interventional Radiology: Factors in Female Trainees’ Specialty Decisions

Abstract

This study aims to identify factors influencing female medical students' decision-making about specialties, specifically surgery and interventional radiology (IR), in an effort to inform future recruitment and professional development strategies. An electronic survey was created to assess both qualitative and quantitative data. The survey was sent prior to a symposium for trainees interested in pursuing IR or surgery, held at University of Chicago (Chicago, IL) in February 2019. The 90 female trainees who registered were sent the survey, and 48 (53%) responded voluntarily. All respondents were female, 46% planned to pursue surgery or IR. Students pursuing surgery/IR were less concerned about being valued by their colleagues (p = 0.0073), being in charge of patients' lives (p = 0.0017), radiation exposure (p = 0.0171), chemical exposure (p = 0.0223), emotional stress (p = 0.0244), or shift work (p = 0.0045), compared to the nonsurgery/IR students. No differences were found in ranking of motivating factors, personal strengths or weaknesses, deciding factors, areas for seeking mentorship, or gender diversity. Top motivations among all respondents were intellectual rigor of medicine and becoming a mentor, while concerns were personal physical health, managing a career, pay equity, and gender-based biases. Students most often sought mentors and clerkship experience for making specialty decisions. They reported greatest strengths in empathy and resilience, and weaknesses in negotiating and public speaking. Female medical students planning to pursue surgery/IR expressed greater confidence in their contributions to patient care and lower concerns about workplace hazards. Regardless of specialty intent, female students shared scholarship motivations for a career in medicine, valued the role of mentorship, and expressed persistent concerns about gender discrimination, personal health, and skills-based weaknesses. Identifying factors influential in career decision-making is important in order to recruit and retain a more gender-diverse physician workforce.