Attitude of clinical year medical students to pursue a neuro-surgery career and its associated factors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Three million African patients need a neurosurgical consultation every year, but there are not enough neurosurgeons to meet this need. Efforts have been made to increase the neurosurgical capacity through the creation of training programs in Africa and Ethiopia in particular. Although these programs have been successful, there is still a low neurosurgeon density for our population and a long way to go to improve access to safe and appropriate neurosurgical care. These is mainly determined by the perception and attitude of the medical students towards neurosurgical career. The factors associated with their decision will be worth knowing to work how to increase the recruitment of medical students to neurosurgery. Objectives: The objective of the study is to evaluate the attitude of clinical year medical students to pursue neurosurgery career and identify factors associated with it. Methods: Cross-sectional study was done in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study population was clinical year medical school students currently learning at Tikur Anbesa Specialized Hospital and St Paul Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Data was collected by survey using a google form and we used SPSS version 25 for cleaning and analysis. Results: A total of 188 clinical year medical students 25% fourth year, 39% fifth year and 36% sixth year were included in the study. The study showed the attitude of clinical year medical students towards neurosurgery career was found to be poor (50%); 51% of the medical students were not considering neurosurgery as their future career. Only 30% of them considered neurosurgery as a possible future career. Being male and attending TASH showed significant association with attitude level. Conclusion: Attitude towards neurosurgery career is poor among clinical year medical students and there is a need to maximize their attitude further..............Thesis available at Addis Continental Institute of Public Health Library