Career Motivations of Male and Female Medical Students

Abstract

Australian medical students (N = 645) were asked at the beginning of their training to rank the importance of a list of motivations relevant to their choice of medicine as a career. Both male and female students ranked the desire to help others as the most important motivation, closely followed by the scientific nature and the intellectual challenge of the profession of medicine. Both genders rated considerations of status and prestige as of low importance. These findings are similar to surveys from other countries that have reported altruism and intellectual challenge as prime motivations for both genders.

A comparative investigation of dental and medical student's motivation towards career choice

“…Likewise, the high importance of 'person oriented motives' and the desire to 'care for and help others' amongst medical students, is consistent with surveys in other countries 2,8 which have consistently reported altruism as a prime motivation of medical students. By contrast, considerations of status and prestige were of comparatively low importance.…”

“…2,8 This is revealed in the comparative percentages of medical/ dental students agreeing to items such as 'challenging career' (60% medical students versus 24% dental students), 'opportunity to use mental skills' (48% medical students versus 16% dental students) and 'general interest in science' (85% medical students versus 14% dental students).…”

Motivation as an independent and a dependent variable in medical education: A review of the literature

“…Similar motives (Karalliedde & Premadasa 1988) and intellectual content were found in other studies on pre-medical and medical students (Kutner & Brogan 1980;Harth et al 1990;Todisco et al 1995;Vaglum et al 1999;Lovecchio & Dundes 2002;Wierenga et al 2003;Rolfe et al 2004;Khater-Menassa & Major 2005). The ability to help people appears to be the strongest motive (Kutner & Brogan 1980;Price et al 1994;Todisco et al 1995;Vaglum et al 1999;Rolfe et al 2004;Millan et al 2005). Women over 30 chose medicine to find intellectual motivation, develop competence and feel achievement (Kaplan 1981 increased patient care responsibility, medical knowledge, personal challenge and status (Gussman 1982).…”

“…Four major underlying dimensions appeared, as found using the Medical Situations Questionnaire in the UK: helping people, being respected, being indispensable and becoming a scientist (McManus et al 2006). Similar motives (Karalliedde & Premadasa 1988) and intellectual content were found in other studies on pre-medical and medical students (Kutner & Brogan 1980;Harth et al 1990;Todisco et al 1995;Vaglum et al 1999;Lovecchio & Dundes 2002;Wierenga et al 2003;Rolfe et al 2004;Khater-Menassa & Major 2005). The ability to help people appears to be the strongest motive (Kutner & Brogan 1980;Price et al 1994;Todisco et al 1995;Vaglum et al 1999;Rolfe et al 2004;Millan et al 2005).…”

“…Females report helping people (Wierenga et al 2003) and having a career as the most important reasons (Robbins et al 1983;Vaglum et al 1999). Other studies found that ranking of motives like opportunity to help people (Kutner & Brogan 1980), scientific nature of medicine and intellectual challenge, in that order, by males and females was similar (Kutner & Brogan 1980;Price et al 1994;Todisco et al 1995); however, more females than males were oriented towards altruistic motives and more males than females were oriented towards financial security (Kutner & Brogan 1980;Price et al 1994) or prestige/status (Wierenga et al 2003). Others found that female medical students scored higher on the person-oriented motive (Vaglum et al 1999;McManus et al 2006), lower on natural science motive (McManus et al 2006) and opportunity for higher income (Vaglum et al 1999) and equal to male medical students on status-oriented motive (Vaglum et al 1999).…”