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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Free choice and career choice: Clerkship electives in medical education.

INTRODUCTION: Medical education experiences, particularly in clinical years, are reported determinants of career choice. Less is known about features of clinical education experiences including length, discipline, setting and choice, which may serve as landmarks in career choice decisions. This study's purpose was to explore the benefits of a free choice clerkship elective, and more specifically, its role in clarifying career choice. METHODS: Using framework and content analysis methodology, we analysed University of British Columbia, third-year medical student anonymised assignments regarding free choice and 2-week clerkship elective experiences. This clerkship was designed to provide students with clerkship experiences outside the conventional curricular model, while encouraging student choice of ambulatory and community settings. Assignment questions included: reasons for choosing elective; whether learning objectives were met; influence of elective on career choice; and unique elective experiences. Iterative review, coding, analysis and indexing of assignments were carried out to identify themes and corroborate findings. RESULTS: Emergent themes included: positive views of experience; transferable knowledge and skills; and influencer of future education and career choices. Although students were encouraged to choose clerkship experiences outside the conventional curricular model, most students chose the elective to clarify future career decisions. DISCUSSION: This qualitative descriptive study highlights the influence of highly regarded, free choice clerkship elective experiences in the career decision making process in medical education. Further examination of the details of clerkship elective experiences which influence career choice is recommended.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1997

Early medical career choices and eventual careers.

The revised structure of hospital specialist training being introduced in the United Kingdom means that a doctor wanting a career in a hospital specialty will need to be confident that his or her early career choice, made within 3 years of qualification, is realistic. Using data from a longitudinal study of the 1983 cohort of UK medical graduates, the early career choices made by over 2000 doctors were compared with their employment 11 years after qualification. At year 11 65% of the doctors were working within the first choice they had expressed towards the end of their pre-registration year, and 79% were employed in their year 3 first choice. There was, however, important variation within this general picture: lower predictive value was associated with choices made by women; choices for hospital mainstreams rather than for general practice; and choices that were less than definite. The recent drop in popularity of general practice as a career choice of new graduates in the UK, and the steady increase in the proportion of women graduates, mean that the predictive value of the career choices of recent graduates may prove to be lower than that of the 1983 cohort.

Career Choice↗
PubMed2004

Medical career choice and practice location: early factors predicting course completion, career choice and practice location.

AIMS: The overall aim of the study was to identify the factors that best predict medical career choice and practice location. METHOD: A longitudinal, cohort study was conducted. This followed 2 cohorts of students, numbering a total of 229 students, who commenced medical studies at the University of Western Australia in 1984 and 1989. Data concerning the students' sociodemographic backgrounds, admission scores and personality characteristics were collected in Year 1. Regression analyses were performed to identify the student characteristics that best predicted course completion, a choice of general practice 4 years after graduation and a rural location of practice. OUTCOMES: We found that students who had lower university admission scores and who were less outgoing were less likely to complete the course. Students who were male, had a father in medicine and were more creative and abstract in their thinking and more conscientious and rule-bound were more likely to choose a specialist career. A rural background was found to be the most important predictor of both rural general and specialist practice.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Machiavellianism and medical career choices.

Medical career choices and Machiavellianism of 36 junior and 37 senior medical students at one private midwestern medical school were studied. Machiavellianism was measured by the Mach V Scale. Students choosing psychiatry did not score significantly higher on Machiavellianism than those choosing medicine, surgery, or other clinical medical specialties. This is contrary to previous research which indicated those medical students choosing psychiatry scored higher on Machiavellianism. There were no significant differences in Machiavellianism scores from two different age groups (20-30 yr. and 31-40 yr.). No significant differences were reported in Machiavellianism scores of 45 male and 29 female medical students or between junior and senior medical students.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

The effect of an ambulatory internal medicine rotation on students' career choices.

PURPOSE: To assess the effect of an ambulatory care experience on medical students' perceptions of internal medicine and their choices of careers (as measured by residency selections). METHOD: In 1990-91, the 196 third-year students enrolled in the 12-week internal medicine clerkship at the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio were randomized to a curriculum that included a three-week ambulatory care component or to a traditional, exclusively inpatient curriculum. The ambulatory curriculum included the evaluation of walk-in-patients, exposure to community internists, and a lecture series. The students' perceptions of internal medicine were surveyed before and after the clerkship. Their career choices were determined by their residency selections at graduation. Data analysis employed chi-square tests, t-tests, and logistic regression. RESULTS: Of the 196 students, 184 (76 in the ambulatory and 108 in the traditional curricula) provided complete data. The ambulatory care students were somewhat more likely to enter an internal medicine residency (odds ratio = 1.49; 95% CI, 0.72 to 3.09) than were the traditional students. The ambulatory care students' perceptions of internal medicine did not change significantly from before to after the clerkship. CONCLUSION: The ambulatory curriculum had a modest but favorable effect on the students' selections of careers in internal medicine, but was not associated with changes in their perceptions of internal medicine.

Ambulatory Care↗
PubMed1998

What predicts medical student career choice?

The literature on medical student career choice has identified several influences that can be categorized as student demographics, medical school characteristics, students' perceptions of specialty characteristics, and student-held values. A logistic regression model that included demographics, medical school, and student-rated influences as a proxy for perceptions and values was used to determine their relative contribution to student career choice for three consecutive cohorts of senior medical students attending two schools (n = 649). This model identified a positive relation between choice of primary care career and both student-rated influences and one student demographic characteristic, but not between career choice and school attended. Variables positively correlated with primary care career choice were related to working with people and marital status. Negatively correlated variables were related to income and prestige.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Medical student career choice and mental rotations ability.

PURPOSE: To determine whether innate visual-spatial ability influences medical student choice of a surgical career. In addition, the student's career interests on entering medical school (matriculation) predicted application and acceptance to a residency program. METHODS: Fifty-nine fourth year medical students at the University of Western Ontario completed a career choice questionnaire that identified the residency program(s) to which they showed interest at the time of matriculation, the program(s) to which they applied, and the residency program(s) to which they matched. The selections were compared with the student's score on the Vandenberg & Kuse Mental Rotations Test, a test of visual-spatial ability. RESULTS: Graduates initially interested in visual-spatially intense medical disciplines scored better (P < 0.02) on the Mental Rotations Test. The findings did not persist to the time of application and acceptance into residency training programs. There was no correlation between visual-spatial ability and selection of a visual-spatially intense specialty. Only 32% of graduates applied to their specialty of initial interest. CONCLUSION: The ability to rotate an object in three dimensions mentally does not to play an important role in surgical career selection although it was a predictor of initial career interest upon entry to medical school. Initial career interest was not an accurate predictor of career choice in general. In contrast to the overall results, 71% of individuals initially interested in family medicine ultimately applied to this medical discipline.

Career Choice↗
PubMed2004

Variation by medical school in career choices of UK graduates of 1999 and 2000.

OBJECTIVE: To report on how newly qualified doctors' specialty choices, and factors that influenced them, varied by medical school. DESIGN: Postal questionnaires. SETTING: United Kingdom. SUBJECTS: All doctors who graduated in the UK in 1999 and 2000. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Choices of eventual career expressed 1 year after graduating, and factors influencing their choices. RESULTS: There were some significant differences between medical schools in the career choices made by their graduates. For example, the percentage of respondents who expressed the choice of general practice was significantly low among graduates of Oxford and Cambridge and high among graduates of Birmingham and Leicester. There was also significant variation between medical schools in choices for hospital medical and surgical specialties. There were significant differences, too, between medical schools in the extent to which career choices had been strongly influenced by graduates' inclinations before starting medical school and by their experience of their chosen specialty, particular teachers and departments at medical school. As well as the differences, however, there were also many similarities between the schools in graduates' career choices. DISCUSSION: Medical schools currently provide students with a broad training suited to any subsequent choice of specialty. We suggest that the similarities between schools in the career choices made by graduates are generally more striking than the differences. We raise the question of whether there should be any specialisation by individual schools to train students for careers in particular branches of medical practice.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1997

Career choices among Saudi medical students.

PURPOSE: To identify the career choices, intended practice locations, and reasons for career choices of final-year Saudi medical students. METHOD: A total of 302 final-year students at the four Saudi medical colleges were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire at the end of the 1994 academic year. RESULTS: A total of 253 students (84%) responded (149 men and 104 women). The most frequently chosen specialties were internal medicine (17%), surgery (16%), pediatrics (14%), and obstetrics-gynecology (11%). Twenty-seven percent were not sure of their future career choices. More of the men chose surgery, but more of the women chose obstetrics-gynecology and ophthalmology. The leading reasons for selecting a specialty were "personal interest," "a chance to help people," "availability of postgraduate training," "few specialists in the country," and "prestige." The most frequently chosen locations for postgraduate training were Saudi Arabia (56%) and Canada (40%). The qualifying examinations the students wished to pass were mostly the Canadian boards (49%) and the Arab boards (48%). A majority intended to practice in hospitals (90%) and in cities (85%). CONCLUSION: The small proportions of students who chose family medicine and some other specialties indicate that the current drastic deficiency of trained Saudi primary health care physicians will continue unless targeted strategies to produce more of these physicians are undertaken.

Career Choice↗
PubMed1997

An early preceptorship and medical students' beliefs, values, and career choices.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Curriculum influence on career choice is difficult to determine. In this study we explored the impact of a summer rural/underserved preceptorship on the residency choices of participants and on the beliefs and attitudes of participating students about rural underserved primary care practices. METHODS: Two data sets are used to examine the Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program (R/UOP). Matriculation and residency selection information is analyzed to compare R/UOP participants with nonparticipants. Second, a survey eliciting beliefs and attitudes about various career choices was given to participants before and after the experience and to a sample of non-participating classmates matched for age, race, and ethnicity. RESULTS: At matriculation, R/UOP participants gave higher rankings to primary care specialties as possible career choices. They were more likely to be matched in a primary care residency than nonparticipants. R/UOP participants expressed belief in more differences between urban and rural practice than did nonparticipants. They maintained their higher attitudes towards rural practice. CONCLUSIONS: R/UOP supports preexisting beliefs and positive attitudes towards rural underserved primary care careers. Participating students do not have large differences at entry into medical school. They are more likely to select primary care residencies, compared with nonparticipants.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1994

The effects of Arthritis Society fellowships on career choice.

OBJECTIVE: To find out if The Arthritis Society (TAS) fellowship grants influenced career choice or career development. METHODS: Two hundred former TAS training fellowship recipients (1975-1990 inclusive) were sent a questionnaire to evaluate the effects of TAS clinical or research fellowship support on their subsequent career development. RESULTS: One hundred and forty (70%) completed questionnaires were returned by 88 clinical and 37 research fellowship recipients--a further 17 had received both a clinical and a research fellowship. Fifty-one percent of the respondents are now academic rheumatologists, 40% in community practice and 9% still in training. Seventy-three percent of the research fellowship recipients currently receive research grant support, compared to 16% of the former clinical fellowship recipients. Seventy-one percent agreed that their TAS fellowship support had "directly or indirectly influenced or facilitated their chosen career path"--this included 100% of the research fellowship recipients, compared to 55% of the clinical fellowship recipients. The majority decided on an academic or a community based career path during their postgraduate training. Fourteen percent who trained for an academic career are now in community practice and 9% who planned on a community based career later became academic rheumatologists. Eighty-nine respondents (64%) enclosed a CV. This subset was further analyzed using career markers such as academic rank, number and size of research grants and number of publications. In this subset those who had received both a clinical and a research fellowship had the most advanced academic rank (22% full professor), largest number of publications (n = 39) and largest number of grants (5.3/year; average $40,446), compared to former research fellowship recipients: 4.0% full professor, 22 publications, 3.2 grants/year; average $25,164. Recipients of clinical fellowships in this subset had lower levels of all the academic career markers. CONCLUSION: Of 200 consecutive TAS fellowship recipients 71% of those responding (n = 140) to a career tracking study agreed that the fellowship support "directly or indirectly" influenced or facilitated their career choice. An apparent synergistic effect of providing both clinical and research fellowships on subsequent development of an academic career deserves further study.

Career Choice↗
PubMed2000

Stability and change in career choices of junior doctors: postal questionnaire surveys of the United Kingdom qualifiers of 1993.

OBJECTIVE: To report on stability and change in career choices of doctors, between 1 and 3 years after qualification. DESIGN: Postal questionnaire surveys. SETTING: United Kingdom. SUBJECTS: All doctors who qualified in the United Kingdom in 1993. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Choices of eventual career expressed 1 and 3 years after qualifying. RESULTS: The overall pattern of career choices at year 3 differed a little from that at year 1. For example, choices for general practice increased from 26% to 29%, choices for medical specialties fell from 22% to 18%, and for surgical specialties they fell from 17% to 14%. However, because changes of choice between specialties tended to 'cancel out', the aggregated data masked much larger changes when considered at the level of individual doctors. Overall, 74% of respondents retained their year 1 career choice in year 3 (78% of men, 70% of women). Of doctors who chose a hospital specialty in year 1, 71% chose the same specialty in year 3, 18% had switched choice to another hospital specialty, and 9% had switched choice to general practice. The percentage who changed choice from hospital specialties to general practice between years 1 and 3 was lower in the 1993 cohort than in all previous cohorts. Of those whose year 1 choice of long-term career was general practice, 89% retained that choice in year 3 and 11% switched to other branches of medicine. Even by year 3, less than half of all respondents (and a smaller percentage of women than men) signified that their long-term choice of specialty was definite. In year 3, 78% of all respondents, and 79% of doctors from homes in the United Kingdom, intended definitely or probably to practise medicine in the United Kingdom for the foreseeable future, which represented little change from the figures in year 1. CONCLUSIONS: About a quarter of doctors change their career choice between years 1 and 3 after qualification, and less than half regard their choice in year 3 as definite. Flexibility is therefore needed, well beyond the first post-qualification year, to accommodate changes of choice. Where training opportunities in a hospital specialty are limited, doctors are now inclining, more than in the past, to switch to an alternative hospital specialty rather than to general practice.

Career Choice↗
PubMed2005

Career choices for anaesthesia: national surveys of graduates of 1974-2002 from UK medical schools.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge about UK doctors' career intentions and pathways is essential for understanding future workforce requirements. The aim of this study was to report career choices for and career progression in anaesthesia in the UK. METHODS: Postal questionnaire surveys were undertaken of qualifiers from all UK medical schools in nine qualification years since 1974. RESULTS: 74% (24623/33417) and 73% (20709/28468) of doctors responded at 1 and 3 yr after qualification. At 1 and 3 yr after qualification, on average, 8% of doctors chose anaesthesia. Between 1974 and 2002 the percentage of doctors choosing anaesthesia, 1 yr after qualification, increased from 5 to 12%. A majority of doctors who chose anaesthesia 1 and 3 yr after qualification were working in anaesthesia 10 yr after qualification. In addition to doctors' enthusiasm for the specialty, career choices for anaesthesia were positively influenced by their perception of working hours, conditions of work, and career and promotion prospects. CONCLUSIONS: Anaesthesia has become increasingly popular as a career choice in the UK. Training numbers could be increased in the short term to speed up the process of providing a consultant-delivered service.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Anaesthetics: career choices and experiences.

At the pre-registration stage, about 4% of doctors who qualified in 1974 and about 5% of 1977 qualifiers gave anaesthetics as a first choice of career. Over the few years after qualifying, both cohorts showed a net gain in career preferences for anaesthetics. The progress of those choosing anaesthetics is described, and also the career paths of those becoming senior registrars in the specialty. Postgraduate qualifications, non-anaesthetic and overseas experience are analysed. Discussion deals with breadth of experience, women doctors and manpower implications.

Anesthesiology↗
PubMed2004

Career choice of new medical students at three Canadian universities: family medicine versus specialty medicine.

BACKGROUND: Over the last 10 years the number of medical students choosing family medicine as a career has steadily declined. Studies have demonstrated that career preference at the time that students begin medical school may be significantly associated with their ultimate career choice. We sought to identify the career preferences students have at entry to medical school and the factors related to family medicine as a first-choice career option. METHODS: A questionnaire was administered to students entering medical school programs at the time of entry at the University of Calgary (programs beginning in 2001 and 2002), University of British Columbia (2001 and 2002) and University of Alberta (2002). Students were asked to indicate their top 3 career choices and to rank the importance of 25 variables with respect to their career choice. Factor analysis was performed on the variables. Reliability of the factor scores was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficients; biserial correlations between the factors and career choice were also calculated. A logistic regression was performed using career choice (family v. other) as the criterion variable and the factors plus demographic characteristics as predictor variables. RESULTS: Of 583 students, 519 (89%) completed the questionnaire. Only 20% of the respondents identified family medicine as their first career option, and about half ranked family medicine in their top 3 choices. Factor analysis produced 5 factors (medical lifestyle, societal orientation, prestige, hospital orientation and varied scope of practice) that explained 52% of the variance in responses. The 5 factors demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and correlated in the expected direction with the choice of family medicine. Logistic regression revealed that students who identified family medicine as their first choice tended to be older, to be concerned about medical lifestyle and to have lived in smaller communities at the time of completing high school; they were also less likely to be hospital oriented. Moreover, students who chose family medicine were much more likely to demonstrate a societal orientation and to desire a varied scope of practice. INTERPRETATION: Several factors appear to drive students toward family medicine, most notably having a societal orientation and a desire for a varied scope of practice. If the factors that influence medical students to choose family medicine can be identified accurately, then it may be possible to use such a model to change medical school admission policies so that the number of students choosing to enter family medicine can be increased.

Adult↗