Background

The world is in the midst of the “digital” revolution characterized by the ascendency of computerization, information systems and artificial intelligence with an emphasis on innovation and creativity. This revolution has affected current medical practice and promises to significantly impact it in the future. This requires physician’s understanding and participation in adopting such technology. This study aimed to explore the role technology plays in the future career plans of medical students.

Methods

A questionnaire examining selection criteria for medical specialty choice, criteria for choosing a post-residency job and demographic data was completed by a convenience sample of 5th-year Israeli medical students.

Results

Two-hundred forty-two students (51 % men) completed the questionnaire, an 84 % response rate. Only a third (35 %) rated the specialty selection criterion "provides mechanical/ technological challenges" as important, while only 7% considered as important that a specialty requires skills in computer science. Few students were interested in post-residency positions requiring much technological knowledge (25 %) and requiring much skill with computerized information systems (13 %). Male students were significantly more interested than females in such positions and these students more often reported that they were considering careers in surgery and its subspecialties. This surgical bent was confirmed by the 42 % of students interested in post-residency positions that include time in the operating room having more interest in positions requiring much technological knowledge than the students not interested in operating room time.

Conclusions

This preliminary study demonstrated that as a group the students’ expressed relatively little interest in medical specialties and post-residency positions involving technological challenges and knowledge of information (computer) science. Yet, the sub-group interested in the surgical specialties had such interests. These findings were perplexing since the students belong to Generations Y and Z who are steeped in the use of smartphones and social media. Therefore, we failed to support our hypothesis that Generation Y and Z students would be attracted to specialties and positions that provide them with technological challenges. Furthermore, medical educators need to explore this apparent lack of interest in technology in order to insure that the future physician workforce is ready to face future “digital” challenges.

中文翻译：

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医学生在临床经验早期对技术的兴趣

背景

世界正处于以计算机化、信息系统和人工智能的优势为特征的“数字”革命之中，强调创新和创造力。这场革命影响了当前的医疗实践，并有望在未来对其产生重大影响。这需要医生的理解和参与采用这种技术。本研究旨在探讨技术在医学生未来职业规划中的作用。

方法

一份调查医学专业选择的选择标准、选择住院医师后工作的标准和人口统计数据的调查问卷由以色列五年级医学生的便利样本完成。

结果

242 名学生（51% 男性）完成了问卷，回复率为 84%。只有三分之一 (35%) 的人认为专业选择标准“提供机械/技术挑战”很重要，而只有 7% 的人认为专业需要计算机科学技能很重要。很少有学生对需要大量技术知识 (25%) 和需要大量计算机信息系统技能 (13%) 的实习后职位感兴趣。男性学生对这些职位的兴趣明显高于女性，这些学生更经常报告说他们正在考虑从事外科及其亚专业。

结论

这项初步研究表明，作为一个群体，学生对涉及技术挑战和信息（计算机）科学知识的医学专业和住院后职位表示相对较少的兴趣。然而，对外科专业感兴趣的小组有这样的兴趣。这些发现令人困惑，因为这些学生属于沉迷于使用智能手机和社交媒体的 Y 和 Z 世代。因此，我们未能支持我们的假设，即 Y 世代和 Z 世代学生会被为他们提供技术挑战的专业和职位所吸引。此外，医学教育者需要探索这种对技术明显缺乏兴趣的现象，以确保未来的医生队伍准备好迎接未来的“数字化”挑战。