Is there sufficient undergraduate interest in head and neck surgery to cover the future disease burden?

Objectives: In recent years there has been a significant disparity between workforce capacity and clinical demand in surgical specialities, including the discipline of head and neck surgery (HNS). Undergraduate exposure to head and neck surgery remains limited despite an increasing disease burden amid a limited workforce capacity within the NHS. We studied the interest of final-year medical students in pursuing a career in head and neck surgery with the aim of identifying associated motivating and deterring factors. Design: A cross-sectional survey study. Setting: An online survey distributed across seven United Kingdom (UK) medical schools. Participants: Final-year medical students in the UK. Main outcome measures: Level of exposure and interest in head and neck surgery, factors influencing interest in the specialty, and career aspirations were evaluated with a five-point Likert scale. Results: : 66.7% (n=422) had 1-7 days exposure to HNS. Within our respondents, complex surgery (24.2%), interesting patient population (20.2%) and complex pathology (16.7%) were the main motivating factors to consider HNS. Work-life balance (23.8%), lack of exposure (31.3%) and length of training (6.5%) were the most common deterring factors. 67.1% of students had felt they had inadequate exposure to the field during undergraduate training. Conclusion: The undergraduate curriculum must place more emphasis on HNS with students shadowing HNS specialists in ENT, OMFS and Plastic Surgery (PS) to cover the breadth of the speciality. Surgical leadership, mentoring and teaching can serve as a contingency way to motivate future doctors to consider head and neck surgery as a career.