Why Anesthesia? A national survey of the 1st year Anesthesiology trainees at Portugal.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25751/rspa.25909Keywords:
anesthesiology, internship and residency; career choice; motivation; specialization; Portugal.Abstract
Introduction: Medical career choice is a complex process. Anesthesiology seems to be an interesting medical career in Portugal. However, the factors associated are unknown. We aimed to identify and explore the motivational factors involved in Anesthesiology career choice.
Materials and methods: We performed a cross-sectional study. An electronic survey regarding motivation to choose Anesthesiology was developed. Motivation was measured using a 5-point Likert scale where reasons to choose Anesthesiology were classified between “nothing” and “extremely preponderant”. The survey was applied by email to all the anesthesiology trainees attending the first internship year in Portugal during 2021(N=80). Statistical analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test.
Results: The response rate was 82,5%. Sixty-three percent were female. Median age was 26 years old. Seventy-seven percent had previous contact with Anesthesiology during pre-graduated education and was the first option from 86,4% of residents. Virtually all would choose the same option again. When considering the most preponderant motivation to choose Anesthesiology, the following factors were classified as “very and extremely preponderant” by more than 50% of respondents: transversality, hands-on specialty, adaptation to personal characteristics, perceived job satisfaction, employability, work/life balance, emergency and critical care, financial perspectives, physiology and pharmacology, predominant operative room workload, low ward workload and career perspectives.
Discussion and Conclusion: Personal factors and transversality of the specialty seems to be relevant factors associated with Anesthesiology career choice. Further studies should be applied on an annual basis and emphasize how the motivational factors differ between different specialties.
Downloads
References
Querido SJ, Vergouw D, Wigersma L, Batenburg RS, Rond MJ, Cate OT. Dynamics of career choice among students in undergraduate medical courses. A BEME systematic review: BEME Guide No. 33. Med Teach. 2015;33:1-12. DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2015.1074990;
Mendes-Castro A, Teles D, Rodrigues D, Novo J. Anestesiologistas do Futuro. Rev Soc Port Anestesiol. 2019; 26,4: 258-259.
Martins JM, Laíns I, Brochado B, Oliveira-Santos M, Teixeira PP, Brandão M et al. Career satisfaction of medical residents in Portugal. Acta Med Port. 2015; 28,2:209-221;
Homer Y, Wilson-Yang K, Raymer K. Recruitment in anaesthesia: results of two national surveys. Can J Anaesth. 1994; 41,7: 621-627.
Irwin M, Soon NT, Fung S. A profile of anaesthesia trainees in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Med J. 2001; 7,3: 227-235.
Turner G, Goldacre MJ, Lambert T, Sear JW. Career choices for anaesthesia: national surveys of graduates of 1974–2002 from UK medical schools. Brit J Anaesth. 2005; 95,3: 332–8. DOI: 10.1093/bja/aei191
Cleland J, Johnston P, Anthony M, Khan N, Scott NW. A survey of factors influencing career preference in new-entrant and exiting medical students from four UK medical schools. BMC Med Educ. 2014; 14, 151. DOI:10.1186/1472-6920-14-151
Augustin I, Long T, Rose S, Wass C. Recruitment of house staff into anesthesiology: a longitudinal evaluation of factors responsible for selecting a career in anesthesiology and an individual training program. J Clin Anesth. 2014; 26: 91-105. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinane.2013.01.020
Moore JN, McDiarmid AJ, Johnston 2 P W , Cleland J A. Identifying and exploring factors influencing career choice, recruitment and retention of anaesthesia trainees in the UK. Postgrad Med J 2017;93:61–66. DOI:10.1136/postgradmedj-2015-133518.
Emmanouil B, Goldacre MJ, Lambert TW. Aspirations to become an anaesthetist: longitudinal study of historical trends and trajectories of UK-qualified doctors´early career choices and factors that have influenced their choices. BMC Anesthesiol. 2017; 14:100. DOI: 10.1186/s12871-017-0392-5.
Cronin FM, Clarke N, Hendrik L, Conroy L, Brugha R. Factors influencing specialty choice and the effect of recall bias on findings from Irish medical graduates: a cross-sectional, longitudinal study. BMC Med Educ. 2020; 20:485 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02405-w.
Ibrahim A, Asuku ME. Reaching our successors: millennial generation medical students and plastic surgery as a career choice. Niger J Surg Off. 2016;22:12–6. DOI: 10.4103/1117-6806.169868.
Twenge JM, Campbell SM, Hoffman JN, Lance CE. Generational Differences in Work Values: Leisure and Extrinsic Values Increasing, Social and Intrinsic Values Decreasing. J Manage. 2010; 36,5:1117-1142. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309352246.
Merrett A, Jones D, Sein K, et al. Attitudes of newly qualified doctors towards a career in general practice: a qualitative focus group study. Br J Gen Pract. 2017; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/ bjgp17X690221.
Bigotte MV,Godinho P, Gaibino N, Dias R, Sousa A, Mandanelo I et al. Satisfação com o internato médico em Portugal. Acta Med Port. 2016;29(12):839-853. DOI: 10.20344/amp.8406
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 André Correia, Alfredo Mendes-Castro
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Articles are freely available to be read, downloaded and shared from the time of publication.
The RSPA reserves the right to commercialize the article as an integral part of the journal (in the preparation of reprints, for example). The author should accompany the submission letter with a declaration of copyright transfer for commercial purposes.
Articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC BY-NC).
After publication in RSPA, authors are allowed to make their articles available in repositories of their home institutions, as long as they always mention where they were published.
