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Female medical students report decreased self-confidence
in their abilities, despite performing equally to male peers in the
classroom and clinic. Females also appeared less confident to patients,
according to a new study published in last month's Patient Education and Counseling.
The study observed third-year medical students interacting
with individuals simulating patients and found female medical students
appeared less self-confident than males. Females also reported less
self-confidence than male medical students, according to the study.
Women account for more than half of applicants to medical
schools in the United States , but medical educators are likely unaware
of gender differences in the student population, say the study's authors.
"Our finding of decreased confidence among female
medical students is important because it makes it very clear that
somewhere in the training of future physicians, the issue of confidence
needs to be addressed," says the study's senior author, Dr. Richard
M. Frankel, professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of
Medicine.
Female medical students also tend to underestimate their
abilities while males overestimated theirs, though females' academic
performance is equal to their male counterparts' performance, say the
study's authors.
— Robin Chen Delos
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