“See One, Do One, Perceive One”: Analyzing the Role of the Third-Year Surgery Clerkship on Students’ Perceptions of Surgeons and Their Lifestyles Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Long hours, poor work-life balance, pessimism, and cynicism are the notorious perceptions of surgeons thought to be held by medical students. The impact that the third-year surgery clerkship has on these perceptions has been discussed, but it’s unclear whether changes to the clinical environments due to COVID-19 hamper such impacts. We sought to provide updated analysis on this common question. METHODS: Identical survey questions were given to third-year medical students before and after their surgery clerkship. Students were asked whether they strongly agreed, agreed, neither agreed nor disagreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed with multiple statements about surgeons. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: 91 students responded to the pre-clerkship survey (82.7% response rate) and 34 students to the post-clerkship survey (38.6% response rate). Compared to pre-clerkship responses, post-clerkship responses demonstrated a significant increase in the percentage of students who believe that surgeons are good teachers (p = 0.00092), respect medical students (p=0.00326) encourage students to pursue surgery (p = 0.0114) and are compassionate physicians (p = 0.00429), and a significant decrease in the percentage of students who believe that surgeons are mean (p = 0.0394) or pessimistic (p = 0.0161). There was no change seen with respect to students’ perceptions of surgeons’ workload (p = 0.304)/lifestyle (p = 0.0796), reputation (p = 0.0873)/respect received (p = 0.750), contentment with career choice (p = 0.268) or respect for other physicians (p = 0.151). CONCLUSION: The third-year surgery clerkship appeared to have improved students’ perception of surgeons’ personality traits and role as educators but did not appear to affect students’ perceptions of surgeons’ lifestyle, inter-personal traits, or reputation.