What should medical students do to choose their medical specialty?

Aboshady, Omar Ali; Zenhom, Maha Saad; Nasr, Abdelrahman Ashraf

doi:10.11604/pamj.2015.22.282.7955

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Late decisions to commit to a future career are mainly related to applicants' lack of information about their desired specialty, which can be tackled through preparing both clinical and research mentorship programmes [ 35 ], offering specialty-specific electives during medical schools [ 36 ], and providing career-support services [ 36 ]. Late career choice is difficult for applicants and risks wasting societies' resources and talents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Career Choices and Career Progression of Junior Doctors in Dermatology: Surveys of UK Medical Graduates

Barat

Goldacre

Lambert

2018

Dermatology Research and Practice

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Objective To report UK-trained doctors' career choices for dermatology, career destinations, and factors influencing career pathways. Methods Multicohort multipurpose longitudinal surveys of UK-trained doctors who graduated between 1974 and 2015. Results In all, 40,412 doctors (58% of graduates) responded in year 1, 31,466 (64%) in year 3, and 24,970 (67%) in year 5. One year after graduation, 1.7% of women and 0.6% of men made dermatology their first choice but by five years after graduation the respective figures were 1.0% and 0.7%. Compared to their predecessors, its popularity fell more substantially from years 1 to 5 among recent graduates (2005–15), particularly for women (from 2.1% in year 1 to 0.8% in year 5) compared with a fall from 0.8% to 0.5% among men. The most important factor influencing dermatology choice was “hours/working conditions”: in year one, 69% regarded this as important compared with 31% of those choosing other hospital physician specialties. Only 18% of respondents who chose dermatology at year 1 eventually worked in it; however, almost all practising dermatologists (94%), 10 years after qualifying, had made their future career decision by year 5. Conclusion Dermatology is popular among female UK graduates. Most dermatologists made their career decision late but decisively.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Career Choices and Career Progression of Junior Doctors in Dermatology: Surveys of UK Medical Graduates

Barat

Goldacre

Lambert

2018

Dermatology Research and Practice

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“…Medical and surgical specialties tended to be similar in terms of impact of policies, despite historical beliefs that surgical programs may be less family-friendly. 14,15 Based purely on the duration of training alone, surgical specialties may allow for more flexible policy alternatives. Residents often feel like they have to choose between their family and career, but there should be alternative solutions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fellowship or Family? A Comparison of Residency Leave Policies With the Family and Medical Leave Act

Lumpkin

Klein

Battarbee

et al. 2019

Journal of Surgical Research

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Background: In 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) mandated 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. The current impact of taking 12 weeks of leave during residency has not been evaluated. Methods: We examined the 2018 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (n ¼ 24) specialty leave policies to determine the impact of 6-and 12-week leave on residency training, board eligibility, and fellowship training. We compared our findings with a 2006 study. Results: In 2018, five (21%) specialties had policy language regarding parental leave during residency, and four (16%) had language regarding medical leave. Median leave allowed was 4 weeks (IQR 4-6). Six specialties (25%) decreased the number of weeks allowed for leave from 2006 to 2018. In 2006, a 6-week leave would cause a 1-year delay in board eligibility in six specialties; in 2018, it would not cause delayed board eligibility in any specialty. In 2018, a 12-week (FMLA) leave would extend training by a median of 6 weeks (mean 4.1, range 0-8), would delay board eligibility by 6-12 months in three programs (mean 2.25, range 0-12), and would delay fellowship training by at least 1 year in 17 specialties (71%). The impact of a 12-week leave was similar between medical and surgical specialties. Conclusions: While leave policies have improved since 2006, most specialties allow for 6 weeks of leave, less than half of what is mandated by the FMLA. Moreover, a 12-week,

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“…7 In 2015, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) released a study showing that 56% of medical students changed their preferred residency specialty before completing medical school. 1 This number has increased in prevalence when compared to a study in 1997 that showed only 75% of students, at the completion of medical school, selected specialties within their matriculation preference. 3 Despite the lack of continuity in specialty preference from the beginning to the conclusion of medical school, this data shows that most medical school entrants have a specialty in mind when embarking on their medical education.…”

Section: Original Investigationmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Depending on students' specialty choices, there could be a shortage or abundance of physicians in varying specialties, leading to a disequilibrium of available resources. 1 This problem was exemplified in a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, where medical students' preference for specialties with controllable lifestyles and income correlated with significantly lower residency fill rates in specialties such as family practice and general surgery. 5 Medical specialties have been categorized in two different ways: person-oriented specialties such as family medicine, versus techniqueoriented medicine, such as surgery 1 and primary care specialties versus non-primary care specialties, respectively.…”

Section: Original Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%