ArticleJournal of the Royal Society of Medicine2022
Differential attainment at MRCS according to gender, ethnicity, age and socioeconomic factors: a retrospective cohort study.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Differential attainment within medical education: a systematic review.BMC medical education · 2025Pooled it
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- Factors predicting operative exposure among UK urology trainees: a national analysis from 2010 to 2024.BJU international · 2026Article
- Article
- Reframing Maslow to Comprehensively Consider the Needs of All Trainees.Perspectives on medical education · 2026Article
- Fair access to higher surgical training in the UK: an equity, diversity and inclusion analysis of national selection in 2024.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic and demographic predictors of extracurricular achievements among UK medical students (FAST study).BMJ open · 2025Article
- Performance of large language models at the MRCS Part A: a tool for medical education?Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England · 2025Article
- Differential attainment in UK postgraduate medical examinations: examining the relationship between sociodemographic differences and examination performance.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Big data analysis: examination of the relationship between candidates' sociodemographic characteristics and performance in the UK's Membership of the Royal College of Physicians Part 1 examination.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2025Article
- Differential attainment at national selection for higher surgical training: a retrospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- DiffErential attainment and Factors AssoCiated with Training applications and Outcomes (DE FACTO) study: Trauma & Orthopaedic surgery in the UK.Bone & joint open · 2024Article
- Differential attainment in assessment of postgraduate surgical trainees: a scoping review.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Variation in Experiences and Attainment in Surgery Between Ethnicities of UK Medical Students and Doctors (ATTAIN): Protocol for a Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- Article
- Medical stereotypes that must be shaken and stirred.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveA recent independent review on diversity and inclusivity highlighted concerns that barriers to surgical career progression exist for some groups of individuals and not others. Group-level differences in performance at the Intercollegiate Membership of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (MRCS) examinations have been identified but are yet to be investigated. We aimed to characterise the relationship between sociodemographic differences and performance at MRCS.
designRetrospective cohort study.
settingSecondary care.
participantsAll UK MRCS candidates attempting Part A (
main outcome measuresChi-square tests established univariate associations with MRCS performance. Multiple logistic regression identified independent predictors of success, adjusted for medical school performance.
resultsStatistically significant differences in MRCS pass rates were found according to gender, ethnicity, age, graduate status, educational background and socioeconomic status (all
conclusionsThere is significant group-level differential attainment at MRCS, likely to represent the accumulation of privilege and disadvantage experienced by individuals throughout their education and training. Those leading surgical education now have a responsibility to identify and address the causes of these attainment differences.
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