[01] Al Sharqi Ali, Department of Neurosurgery, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. [02] Al-Saadi Tariq, Department of Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Department of Neurosurgery, Khoula Hospital, Muscat, Oman.

Background: Significant changed occur in the field of medicine in past years including advances in technologies, researches as well as women and minority students entering the field of medicine. Multiple factors can affect the influence of interns and medical students toward specialty choosing. Previous study showed that most medical students are unfavorably disposed to neurosurgery as a specialty. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first in the country to study the attitudes and perceptions of Omani medical students and interns toward neurosurgery. Aim: The aim of the study is to evaluate the attitudes and perceptions of Omani medical students and interns toward neurosurgery. Method: The study was conducted by using a cross sectional survey. A postal questionnaire sent to 500 Omani medical students in Sultan Qaboos university (SQU), Oman Medical College (OMC) and Omani medical students from International Medical Colleges (IMC). The questionnaire included two sections. The first section was about personal demographic information. Whereas the second section was about different factors that may affect students attitudes toward neurosurgery. Results: There was a total number of 230 participants filled the questionnaire completely with the highest number of the students were from Collage of Medicine at SQU (72.2%) followed by students from OMC (13.9%) and IMC students (13.9%). Both male and female Omani medical students and interns strongly reported that the top drawback of neurosurgery in Oman was the challenging nature of neurosurgical cases, followed by absence of neurosurgery residency program in Oman. Presence of mentor in neurosurgery can increase medical students interest in this field with a percentage of 98%. Conclusion: An earlier involvement of medical students in neurosurgery rotations can result in an improved understanding of neurosurgery among other practitioners as well as a greater number of well qualified residency applicants into neurosurgery.

Omani, Medical Students, Interns, Attitude, Neurosurgery, Residency

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