Theme 3 “variable specialty”
The students attributed how varied and exciting the specialty is, as a reason to want to pursue a career in obstetrics and gynaecology, but also why they enjoyed the placement, highlighting the mix of both medicine and surgery, and the practical exposure the specialty provides.
FG5 F13 “I actually enjoyed it [the placement] a lot more than I thought I was going to. And what I like about it, is that it is so varied, you have the obstetrics side, you have the gynae side and it’s like even though medicine in general, there is always going to be different things going on, I think obs and gynae is like on another level. Because no two days will ever be the same.”FG5 M8 ‘O+G is probably the most varied in terms of the number of things that could be going on. There are so many different disciplines working together in time, whereas usually on a ward you have a ward round and then jobs. And that’s it then until the afternoon, so it’s a lot more simple’
The labour ward is a fast-paced environment that relies on multi-disciplinary team working, providing clinicians with a varied and often adrenaline fuelled role that this study has demonstrated was a consideration in students choice of careers.