Women in surgery V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Women in Surgery: Exploring stakeholders’ experiences and perceptions of female surgeons in different healthcare settings.
IRAS ID
187244
Contact name
Susie Schofield
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Dundee
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 31 days
Research summary
It is believed that machismo in surgery lies at the very heart of women's lack of interest in surgery as well as the work-life imbalance associated with the speciality. However, this is an aspect of medical education and surgery that has not been explored fully to identify the impact of gender imbalance on healthcare workforce and indeed patient care.
Several studies have shown that some patients have a gender preference; with particularly females preferring doctors of the same gender when receiving care. If some patients (particularly women) do show a preference for female doctors there may be problems for health workforce planning, as surgery is attracting fewer females.
Epistemologically grounded in social constructionism, it is proposed that this research will be undertaken in two stages, using narrative inquiry and observation of interactions using videoing. Narrative interviewing techniques will be used to capture female surgeons’ conceptualisations of working in both healthcare system (National Health Service in Scotland and Health Service Executive in Ireland).
This study also aims to explore other stakeholders’ perceptions of female surgeons.
We hope that this study will identify some issues that could be addressed by policy makers to attract more females into the specialty of surgery.REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
16/ES/0082
Date of REC Opinion
27 Jun 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion