Global surgery in Australia and New Zealand universities (GANZ): A binational cross-sectional study of medical student education.

چکیده اصلی

BACKGROUND: Five billion individuals worldwide lack access to safe and affordable surgical care, a deficit disproportionately skewed toward low- and middle-income countries. Global surgery may be defined as "an area of study, research, practice, and advocacy" aiming to improve health outcomes for surgical patients. Universities play an important role in global surgical work in high-income countries. We aimed to determine the relevant knowledge, attitudes, and perspectives of medical students in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ). METHODOLOGY: We surveyed senior medical students in ANZ medical schools (n = 24) from August to October 2022. Participants were recruited through university channels, social media, and snowball sampling. Participants completed questionnaires examining attitudes, exposures, and content knowledge relating to global surgery. RESULTS: A total of 851 eligible responses were analyzed. This included 189 of 851 (22.2%) participants with prior global surgery exposure, most commonly through student organizations (10.9%), and 686 of 851 (80.6%) participants believed global surgery to be relevant to medical students. Few participants (72 of 851; 8.5%) reported timetabled teaching of global surgery content, despite 494 of 741 (66.7%) supporting mandatory inclusion in medical school curricula. Preferred methods of global surgery exposure did not align with the methods received, and global surgery was infrequently reported in university curricula. Global surgery knowledge was limited and lower than that of students overseas. Despite this, participants indicated significant interest in global surgery teaching. CONCLUSION: ANZ medical students lack global surgery education and knowledge. Most global surgery education is delivered through nonacademic methods, including student societies and social media. Educators should consider these findings when planning medical school curricula.

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