Publication:

General surgery resident’s perspective towards general surgery residency in Pakistan and allotment of surgical cases to them: a cross sectional study

Background General surgery residency is considered a stressful field with residents facing many problems including learning operative procedures, competition with fellow colleagues, gender discrimination and balancing their marital and family life.

Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-structured questionnaire, containing questions about perspective of general surgical residents about residency structure and problems in Pakistan and about allotment of surgical procedures to them. A total of 1624 general surgical residents were conveniently enrolled in this study from different tertiary care hospitals of Pakistan.

Results Mean age of residents was 29 years (range 24-35 years).70.44% of residents were male while 29.55% were female. Majority of the residents were from 2nd year residency (30.66%). 889 (54.7%) of the residents thought that the general surgery residency had put negative effects on their family and marital life while 1365 (84%) stated that they suffered from anxiety depression sleep deprivation at some time during the residency (p<0.01). 864 (53.2%) residents disagreed that surgical procedures are allotted according to the year of residency.901 (55.4%) residents were not sure that buttering their seniors will get them more cases. 887 (54.6%) were unsure about gender discrimination in the general surgery (p<0.01).

Conclusions Gender discrimination in general surgery is now obsolete. Main factor in the allotment of operative procedure is the responsible behaviour of the resident, past operative records and level of pre-and post-operative care of the patients. Grid system should be adopted for the allotment of surgical procedures.