Factors associated with the time devoted to writing faculty papers at 3^rd cycle general medicine students

Introduction. Faculty work (TF) helps to build the skills of students in the 3rd cycle (E3C) of general medical studies (MG). Students' personal training time, set at half a day a week, appears to be a privileged time for writing assignments. Students say they make little use of this personal training time. Objective. Describe the time spent writing TFs and analyze the factors associated with it. Method. Cross-sectional survey by questionnaire sent by e-mail by departments of general medicine to all E3Cs of MGs in France and in training. Bivariate and multivariate analysis using STATA software. Results. A total of 2003 students responded. An average of 1.74 half -days per week were devoted to writing TFs. Writing was mostly (62.6%) done on personal time or shared with other training activities when this was not the case. The main factors associated with writing time identified in multivariate analysis were the hospital nature of the training course (-1.02 DJ, p < 0.01), the perception of a heavy load of TFs (+1.07 DJ, p = 0.044), the positive perception of TFs (+0.84 DJ, p < 0.01). Discussion. The lack of a specific time allocation for TF production contributes to students' cognitive overload. This has repercussions on the cognitive mechanisms involved in TF writing, as well as on students' mental health. The lack of sanctuary in TF writing is multifactorial and complex. This work suggests that a professional identity that is not geared towards the practice of general medicine may play a part in this difficulty. A better understanding of the mechanisms of students' professional socialization in the French curriculum could help support the construction of their professional identity.