WOMEN IN SURGERY - an overview of the evolving trends in Nigeria

Since 1974 when the first Nigerian female surgeon was produced, an increasing number of Nigerian females have qualified as surgeons and more are in the various residency training programmes in Nigeria to become surgeons.

To document the evolving trend of Nigerian females training as surgeons and their contribution to the surgical workforce.

A questionnaire based survey of Nigerian females who are qualified surgeons and those in the surgical training programmes from June 2016 - September 2017.

Sixty questionnaires were sent out, and 54(90%) responded, with 49(91%) completely answering the questionnaire. The age range of the respondents was between 29 -72 years, with a mean age of 37.5 ± 6.2 years. Twelve (22.2%) were registrars, 18(33.3%) were senior registrars, and 24(44.4%) were specialists. One respondent (1.85%) had an academic professorial chair. The reasons for the preferred choice of subspecialty included: genuine interest 44(89.8%), availability of mentors 20(40.8%), the availability of a structured programme 14(28.62%), lifestyle friendly programmes 7(14.3%), remuneration 6(12.2%), and the duration of the training 1(2.2%). Thirty three (67.4%) were married, 11(22.5%) were single and 5(10.2%) were divorced. Twenty six (78.8%) gave birth to children during their surgical training programmes, while 12(36.4%) and 5(15.2%) gave birth to children before and after their programmes respectively. Twelve (37.5%) of the respondents who gave birth during training, had disruption in their training. Four (8.2%) of the respondents, made a career switch from Surgery.

The evolving interest of female doctors in Surgery in Nigeria as highlighted in this study is a welcome development and should be encouraged and sustained by mentoring of aspiring female surgeons even from the medical schools.