Attractiveness of medical disciplines amongst Swiss first-year medical students allocated to different medical education tracks: cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background As most countries, Switzerland is experiencing a shortage of physicians especially in general practice and new medical education tracks with respective focusses have been started in response. This study investigated Swiss medical students’ career openness and attractiveness of different medical disciplines as well as the concordance of students’ career intentions with assigned medical education tracks. Methods Cross-sectional study surveying first year medical students assigned to four different Swiss medical education tracks with distinctive additional education focuses (ETH Zurich: medical technology and engineering, University of St. Gallen and University of Lucerne: primary healthcare and University of Zurich: no distinctive focus). Results We surveyed 354 medical students (response rate across all included medical education tracks 71.1%), 64.8% female, mean age 20 years. Regarding career openness, we found that 52.8% of medical students had neither a strong commitment nor a strong reservation for any of the proposed career options and 17.0% had a strong commitment. Among medical disciplines, medical subspecialties were attractive to the largest part of students (inpatient subspecialties attractive for 71%, outpatient for 58%), attractiveness of general practice was moderate (30%), academic (22%) and industrial sector (17%) careers were least attractive. Proportions of medical students attracted to general practice were similar at medical education tracks with focus on primary healthcare compared to other medical education tracks (32.2% vs. 25.8%, p = 0.391). Conversely, proportions of medical students attracted to academic or industry careers were significantly higher at the ETH Zurich compared to other medical education tracks (37.2%, vs. 13.1%, p < 0.001 and 31.9%, vs. 8.8%, p < 0.001 respectively). Conclusion While most first-year medical students were open to careers in many medical disciplines, attractiveness of disciplines varied strongly. Students attracted to academic or industrial careers accumulated at the medical education track with concordant teaching focus but students attracted to general practice did not accumulate at medical education tracks focused on primary healthcare. For medical education tracks with primary care teaching focus this is both a challenge and an opportunity to specifically counteract the shortage of general practitioners in Switzerland.

Changes in the attractiveness of medical careers and career determinants during the bachelor’s program at Zurich medical schools

“…The first round took place during a plenary lecture. Methods, definitions and results of the first survey have been published [ 27 ]. Since attendance at lectures was lower in the third year, the second round was conducted by inviting students via email or chat groups, with a reminder email and a raffle among survey participants (prizes were 10 vouchers valued at CHF 100 each to spend in a store chosen by the winner).…”

“…The questionnaire at both time points was in German and included items measuring the attractiveness of different medical career options and the importance of determinants of career choice. An English translation of the survey is available [ 27 ]. The attractiveness of seven proposed specific or aggregated medical career options (general practice, outpatient gynecology/pediatrics, specialized outpatient care other than gynecology/pediatrics, inpatient general internal medicine, specialized inpatient care, academic, medical technology industry) was measured on a five-point Likert scale (from “excluded goal” to “the only goal”).…”

“…Similarly, a five-point Likert scale (from "not at all important" to "very important") was used to rate the perceived importance of eight career determinants (relationship with patients, primarily performing medical activities, autonomy, part-time work, career opportunities, income, reputation, political context) which have been identified in the literature as potentially important [2][3][4][5][6]. The questionnaire also included information on the medical education track attended, demographic characteristics (place of residence, gender, age) and the score obtained in the mandatory and selective aptitude test [27] upon entry to the medical education program.…”

La relve de la mdecine suisse

“…La planification de la famille est un sujet qui touche la majorité des étudiants. Ceci notamment pour des raisons démographiques, la majorité des nouveaux étudiants admis étant des femmes, soit un peu plus de 60% [6], qui en raison d'une grossesse rencontreront plus de difficultés que leurs collègues masculins lors de leur carrière hospitalière. «Un professeur m'a conseillé d'avoir des enfants pendant mes études pour faciliter ma carrière par la suite», rapporte Salome Amstutz.…”

Factors influencing medical students’ knowledge and motivations related to the profession of family medicine and speciality choice

“…International comparison of the attractiveness of family medicine[46,[61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72] …”