Dataset Information

Role Models' Influence on Specialty Choice for Residency Training: A National Longitudinal Study.

ABSTRACT: Background :Role models in medical school may influence students' residency specialty choice. Objective :We examined whether medical students who reported clinical exposure to a role model during medical school would have an increased likelihood of selecting the role model's specialty for their residencies. Methods :We conducted a 5-year prospective, national longitudinal study (2011-2016) of medical students from 24 US allopathic medical schools, starting from the middle of their third year. The primary outcome measure was type of residency specialty choice 4 years after graduation. Main predictors were the clinical specialty of a student's most admired physician and the relative importance of 7 potentially influential factors for specialty choice in the fourth year of medical school. Results :From 919 eligible participants, 564 (61%) responded to the first survey; 474 of the respondents (84%) completed the follow-up survey. We excluded 29 participants who were not in their fourth year by the time of the follow-up survey. Of the follow-up respondents, 427 (96%) had specialty data 4 years after graduation. In our multivariate models, exposure to an admired generalist physician prior to medical school (odds ratio [OR] = 2.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03-4.73) and during medical school (OR = 2.62, 95% CI 1.69-4.05) had the strongest odds with respect to training in a generalist residency 4 years after graduation. Role model exposure also predicted specialty choice among those training in surgical and radiology, ophthalmology, anesthesiology, and dermatology (ROAD) specialties. Conclusions :Personal exposure to role models in medical school is an important predictor of residency training in that role model's specialty.

SUBMITTER: Yoon JD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5901792 | biostudies-other | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Role Models' Influence on Specialty Choice for Residency Training: A National Longitudinal Study.

Yoon John D JD Ham Sandra A SA Reddy Shalini T ST Curlin Farr A FA

Journal of graduate medical education 20180401 2

<h4>Background</h4>Role models in medical school may influence students' residency specialty choice.<h4>Objective</h4>We examined whether medical students who reported clinical exposure to a role model during medical school would have an increased likelihood of selecting the role model's specialty for their residencies.<h4>Methods</h4>We conducted a 5-year prospective, national longitudinal study (2011-2016) of medical students from 24 US allopathic medical schools, starting from the middle of t ...[more]

PMID: 29686752

Similar Datasets

Project description:ObjectivesTo examine sex differences in the specialty training recruitment outcomes of UK medical graduates; and whether sex differences were explained by prior academic attainment and previous fitness to practise (FtP) declarations.DesignRetrospective longitudinal cohort study.SettingAdministrative data on entrants to all UK medical schools from the UK Medical Education Database.Participants10 559 doctors (6 155; 58% female) who entered a UK medical school in 2007 or 2008 and were eligible to apply for specialty training by 2015.Primary outcome measureOdds of application, offer and acceptance to any specialty training programme, and on to each of the nine largest training programmes, adjusting for sex, other demographics, prior academic attainment, FtP declaration and medical school.ResultsAcross all specialties, there were no sex differences in applications for specialty training, but women had increased odds of getting an offer (OR=1.40; 95% CI=1.25 to 1.57; p<0.001) and accepting one (OR=1.43; 95% CI=1.19 to 1.71; p<0.001). Seven of the nine largest specialties showed significant sex differences in applications, which remained after adjusting for other factors. In the adjusted models, Paediatrics (OR=1.57; 95% CI=1.01 to 2.46; p=0.046) and general practice (GP) (OR=1.23; 95% CI=1.03 to 1.46; p=0.017) were the only specialties to show sex differences in offers, both favouring women. GP alone showed sex differences in acceptances, with women being more likely to accept (OR=1.34; 95% CI=1.03 to 1.76; p=0.03). Doctors with an FtP declaration were slightly less likely to apply to specialty training overall (OR=0.84; 95% CI=0.71 to 1.00; p=0.048) and less likely to accept an offer to any programme (OR=0.71; 95% CI=0.52 to 0.98; p=0.036), after adjusting for confounders.ConclusionsSex segregation between medical specialties is due to differential application, although research is needed to understand why men are less likely to be offered a place on to GP and Paediatrics training, and if offered GP are less likely to accept.

Dataset Information

Role Models' Influence on Specialty Choice for Residency Training: A National Longitudinal Study.

Publications

Role Models' Influence on Specialty Choice for Residency Training: A National Longitudinal Study.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets