4.3 Levels of Exposure
The articles in this review have showed that exposure at all stages of training influences perception, interest, and confidence in choosing CT surgery as a career choice. Diminished caseloads and the length of training programs (5) have also been indicated in to be a deterrent. The introduction of integrated programmes might shorten the duration of training, but it accompanies a set of perceived challenges surrounding the maturity and the vulnerability of attrition amongst trainees (30).
Lack of exposure in standard medical curricula amongst the institutions and countries involved in this review seems to be a recurring theme and any adequate exposure was largely obtained in an extracurricular environment via student selected components and mentorships organised by the students who developed an early interest in CT surgery. Increasing exposure to CT surgery throughout medical school and in junior surgical jobs, may help with maintaining long term interest. We can observe a pattern where students who intend to pursue a career in specific surgical fields including CT surgery tend to proactively organise theatre time as opposed to those who were not interested in CT surgery. However, due to the limited number of studies available, it may be difficult to discern if changing the current levels of exposure via designed programmes may affect the interest in CT surgery and thus acquiring an adequate workforce in the future.