A SCOPING REVIEW OF GENDER-BASED DIFFERENCES IN MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
Main Article Content
Keywords
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Abstract
Background: Health care Professions Education Research (HCPER) spans a multitude of topics, drawing from a diversity of research domains which adds to its richness and variety.
Purpose: This unique study maps literature of healthcare professional education (HCPE) about gender based discrimination in medical students and their implications, published in English.
Methods: A scoping review was carried out, using Arksey & O’Malley framework. Literature search included online database PubMed (from 1988 to 2022), manual scan of journals and hand searches. Demographic codes were developed after using PRISMA guidelines and data was managed by Endnote.
Data Sources: Pubmed, being the major medical data base was chosen along with hand searches and manual searches.
Eligibility Criteria: Primary research that reported gender based differences in medical students were the focus of the study. Manuscripts in English were included, although many other languages were included in Pubmed, which the researcher was familiar with, such as Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Hindi etc. but that led to 0 results. All study types were included. Participants were medical students. Studies carried out on the same topic but having participants other than medical field were excluded. Studies where gender was analyzed as a secondary variable were also excluded, although those studies where gender was not the sole variable were included to increase the breadth of the research.
Data Extraction: At time, one researcher screened 86 manuscripts (after removing duplicates, exclusion/inclusion criteria. The remaining 14 articles were coded and analyzed.
Results: PubMed advance search yielded to 67 results (using Medical Subject Heading terms differences, healthcare students, medical students, crossed with gender), while 19 articles that were retrieved from manual/hand searches were also included. Most of the studies were empirical including one literature review and one scoping review. A total of 11 articles were selected out of the total 86 articles based on the inclusion criteria mentioned below. Articles published in English language, using gender as a primary variable were included. Data was charted according to both pre-determined and emergent categories. The articles showed research carried out on gender amongst medical students in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Syria, America, Netherland, Canada, Australia and England. Authors were predominantly affiliated with a university. Almost all studies comprised medical students as subjects. Four themes were highlighted:
Conclusions: This scoping review identified and characterized a relevantly large pool of literature having quality research. The review highlights the need for further research to understand the role of gender within health care professions education research (HCPER). The study hopes to help strategize medical curriculum reforms, leading to gender sensitive health services in developed and developing countries. Future research should also examine the analysis of literature in languages other than English.
Objectives: This scoping review was conducted to analyze gender differences in medical students and their implications.
Aims and Research Questions
Recently, there has been a growing body of research investigating differences in medical/healthcare students on the basis of gender. However, the studies are disjointed and small scale. We have no clear idea of the many ways medical students and doctors manifest differences on the basis of gender and how it has an impact on their studies and performance during and post studies in their professional lives. We address this gap by examining articles published in English on the topic since 1988. As we map medical journal articles about the topic, we aim to answer the following research questions.
- RQ1: How prominent are gender differences amongst medical students and professionals?
- Whether they are aware of in-built gender competencies.
- How such types of differences and attitudes impact the performance of medical students during studies and after they graduate in their workplace and whether they are knowingly or unknowingly becoming part of this cycle?
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Shagufta Gul
Ex Chairperson, Department of English, Women University Mardan, Pakistan,
Professor Lynn Monrouxe
Academic Lead and Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Australia,
Dr. Alexandra Marcia Marrugo
Lecturer, Student Learning and Communication, University of Sydney, Australia
Fawad Ali
Institute of Biotechnology and Microbiology, Bacha Khan University, Charsadda - Pakistan