The Perceived Impact of Global Surgery Engagement on Career Advancement among US Medical Students

There is growing interest among medical institutions to formalize global surgery training. Understanding medical students' perceptions of how global surgery engagement can enhance career advancement is essential for providing appropriate guidance and support for individuals with aspirations in academic global surgery.

A cross-sectional survey study of US-based medical students from 38 participating schools was performed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were constructed to assess motivations and the perceived impact of global surgery engagement on career advancement. The primary outcomes of interest were whether students perceived global surgery participation as beneficial for residency applications and for becoming a better surgeon.

Of the 708 responses, 251 (35.5%) students indicated interest in global surgery. The most common top-ranked motivations for participating in global surgery were feeling a "responsibility to help those who are less privileged or underserved" (32.8%), "finding global health academically interesting" (19.3%), "having a moral commitment to global surgery as a component of health equity" (16.7%). Regardless of global surgery interest, most students believed global surgery engagement would make students better surgeons (83.1%) and better residency applicants (70.5%). On multivariate analysis, having global surgery in the medical school curriculum was associated with increased odds of perceiving the benefit of global surgery engagement for residency applications (aOR: 3.04, p = 0.042). Student membership in a global surgery interest group was associated with increased odds of perceiving the benefit of global surgery engagement for becoming a better surgeon (aOR: 2.17, p = 0.028).

Students with curricular and extracurricular involvement in global surgery during medical school tend to perceive the career benefits of global surgery engagement. Medical institutions should consider how participants will regard their professional growth when developing global surgery programs for trainees.