Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Plastic Surgery Among Medical Students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Unfortunately, plastic surgery is seen as cosmetic. Medical students and the public are guilty of this misperception. Educating these students can help future doctors make better medical referrals. The objective of our study was to explore the perspectives and attitudes of the students about plastic surgery. The conclusion may identify the particular concerns about issues of their opinions that we could aim to improve and adapt for our surgical education.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive questionnaire-based study was conducted to study the perception of the medical students in the Faculty of Medicine of University of Tabuk toward plastic surgery for the academic year 2024–2025. A self-administered questionnaire was used in the survey. Results were descriptively presented in terms of percentages, means, and standard deviations.

 Results: The overall student perception was 68.8%. The average perception level in relation to any academic year from the second to the sixth year was 66.6%, 66.1%, 65.4%, 72.0%, and 75.1% and significantly different (p = 0.001), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in the attitudes of students with respect to gender or GPA, however. The mean level of attitude (for the whole group) was 3.8 on a scale of 5. There is no statistically significant difference in student attitude by gender, year of study, or GPA. Student source of information was social media (66.5%).

Conclusion: students had an acceptable perception and attitude towards plastic surgery. Social media was identified as a significant source of information and thus plastic surgery subjects should be covered early on in the curricula of second, third, and fourth years..