Volume 24, Issue 103, May - June, 2020

The causes of medical students and interns misperception of plastic surgery specialty at University of Jeddah

Mahmoud Fakiha¹, Mohaned Al Safar^2♦, Mohammed Alsatti³, Salih Aljehany⁴, Hisham Rizq⁵

¹Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at University of Jeddah, Email: mahmoudfakiha@gmail.com
²Medical student, University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Email: mohanedalsafar@gmail.com
³Medical student, University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Email: mohmmedhrby55@gmail.com
⁴Medical student, University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Email: salihjeh@hotmail.com
⁵Professor of General Surgery at University of Jeddah, Email: hishamrizq@hotmail.com

^♦Corresponding author
Medical student, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Email: mohanedalsafar@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Objective: This research is to investigate the causes of medical students and interns misperception of plastic surgery at University of Jeddah, and to ask them about the colleague’s and community’s opinion of the specialty. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among medical students and interns at University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire contains: 22 electronic questions to assess their knowledge, perception, understanding and believes regarding plastic surgery specialty and distinguish it from other specialties. We used stratified sampling of 111 out of 151, calculated by using Raosoft software and analyzed statistically by SPSS V23. Results: 111 male medical students and interns were included in this study and among them 110 were Saudi; only one student was non-Saudi. The most important source of information to choose plastic surgery was ‘recommendation from family or friends’, 42 (37.8%), and the least important source of information was Doctor’s website (5.4%).Their biggest concern is difficult to be accepted in the plastic surgery program (53.2%). They choose the religious doubt (47.7%) as a community’s opinion of plastic surgery in Saudi Arabia. Conclusion: This study found that there is a misperception, and the primary source of information is the main factor that leads to this misperception. The medical college’s curriculum should pay more attention to plastic surgery, and focus on the non-cosmetic part of the specialty.

Keywords: Plastic surgery, Medical students, Misperception, Jeddah

Medical Science, 2020, 24(103), 1200-1207

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