Understanding the relevance of surgical specialties in undergraduate medical education: Insights of graduates

Background: The relevance of training medical students in surgical specialty services has been a matter of debate in contexts where the health care system focuses on primary health care. Some educators argue that medical students should be trained in primary care settings. Other educators assert that rotating in highly complex hospitals strengthens the competencies of future general practitioners. Nonetheless, little attention has been paid to the added value that rotations in surgical specialties have brought to newly graduated doctors' lives. In this study, we explored the perceptions of a group of graduates by focusing on the relevant experiences they had during their surgical specialty rotations in undergraduate medical training and how this training influenced their personal and professional life. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study using a convenience sampling strategy to recruit a total of seven junior doctors. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews in 2022. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data until code saturation was reached. Results: The recurring themes were (1) perception of rotations, (2) valuable learning for medical practice and (3) defining their professional future. Participants felt that their experiences in surgical specialty rotations were beneficial, as they gained confidence to perform professionally and decide on future employment and strengthened their research and primary healthcare competencies. Conclusion: Although training in primary healthcare centres is crucial in undergraduate medical education, these results suggest that including rotations in surgical specialties may be valuable in enhancing the future careers of junior doctors.