Presenter:
Sandy Lum-Wang
Authors:
Sandy Lum-Wang, Paris-Ann Ingledew, Brandon S. Chai
Poster Abstract:
For medical students, choosing a specialty is a complex decision that holds lifelong implications. As YouTube’s popularity increases, students may seek information about specialties from this platform. This study aims to characterize existing YouTube videos that may inform medical students about careers in radiation oncology.
6 relevant search terms were entered into YouTube on December 2023. The first 50 results of each search were web scraped for a total of 300 search results. The combined list was rank-ordered by prioritizing videos found across multiple searches and those that appeared earlier in search results. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, and the first 50 remaining videos were reviewed using a video assessment tool. Quantitative and qualitative data were respectively analyzed with descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.
The top two publishing countries were USA (36/50) and India (9/50). Most videos were published within 4 years of the search date (80%). Career aspects such as labour content (86%) and altruism (60%) were often addressed, while other aspects such as lifestyle (26%) and salary (16%) received less attention. Videos recurringly depicted careers in radiation oncology as being “patient-oriented” (74%), integrating “advanced technology” (72%), and involving “compassionate care” (68%).
Our study illustrates that YouTube videos predominantly address the labour content of careers in radiation oncology but have gaps in other addressing factors that are recognized as influential on subspeciality choice. Providing students with relevant information to inform career selection may be especially important for specialties with underexposure in the medical school curriculum.
