Survey of pre-clerkship medical students' knowledge and perceptions of anesthesiology at one Canadian university.

Abstract

To the Editor, Several published surveys have suggested that medical students generally lack sufficient knowledge of the scope of anesthesiology practice. Despite this, anesthesiology is one of the most highly competitive specialties among graduates seeking residency positions in Canada. In 2014, it ranked as the fifth highest first-preference specialty among Canadian medical graduates while offering only 3.5% of the total residency positions. In 2014, only 73% of applicants were matched to anesthesiology as their first-choice discipline, a decrease from 77% the previous year. This paradox suggests that sometime between pre-clerkship and application for residency a number of Canadian medical students gain sufficient awareness and knowledge of anesthesiology to be interested in pursuing it as a career. To collect information about pre-clerkship students’ attitudes, knowledge, and perception of anesthesiology, we surveyed firstand second-year medical students at the University of Alberta (U of A), whose medical school has no in-class units designated to teach anesthesiology during the students’ pre-clerkship. The survey (see Appendix; available as Electronic Supplementary Material) consisted of 14 questions designed to collect information about students’ knowledge of anesthesiology practice and their perceptions of anesthesiologists’ job satisfaction, financial compensation, and lifestyle. Surveys were distributed to the 165 first-year and 168 second-year students. Responses were received from 137 (83%) and 132 (79%) students, respectively. Figure A shows the firstand second-year students’ primary source of information about anesthesiology. Students’ perceptions of an anesthesiologist’s role, financial compensation, and workload are shown in Figure B. Basic knowledge of where anesthesiologists work in Canada varied dramatically, from being highly accurate in certain areas to lacking considerably in others. Overall, 94% of students reported interest in learning more about anesthesiology (45% very interested, 49% somewhat interested), whereas 6% did not answer or reported no interest. When asked in what year they would be most interested in learning about anesthesiology, the most frequent response was the second year (39%) followed by the third year (28%). Figure C shows that shadowing and mandatory rotation were almost equally chosen (94 and 90 responses, respectively) as the preferred methods to learn more about anesthesiology. Our survey reveals that pre-clerkship students at the U of A medical school possess reasonable general knowledge about anesthesiology. They also have overall positive perceptions of anesthesiologists’ financial compensation and relative workload. A vast majority of the students reported interest in learning more about anesthesiology. Our survey also yielded some concerning results. For example, whereas no first-year students reported no interest in learning more about anesthesiology, 8% of second-year students gave this answer (data not shown). One possibility Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12630-014-0297-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.