Aims: To determine the proportion of senior medical students who are surgically inclined and to assess whether gender differences exist in surgical inclination.
Study design: Cross-sectional survey. Twenty-five point questionnaire. Likert scale response ranking.
Setting: University of Auckland Medical School, New Zealand.
Participants: 218 surveys were emailed to functioning addresses of fourth and fifth year students.156 students emailed responses (71.60% response rate).
Results: Twenty percent of students were found to be surgically inclined (95% CI 0.15-0.26). The proportion of surgically inclined males was significantly higher than females (p<0.01). A greater proportion of surgically inclined students found time spent in the operating theatre educationally valuable than non-surgically inclined students (p<0.01). No difference exists in the number of different procedures undertaken by students (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Males are significantly more likely to be surgically inclined than females at the University of Auckland Medical School.