A comparison of the experiences of 683 surgery students taking preceptorships in community hospitals and 696 taking only university-based rotations found no significant differences in individual characteristics, academic performance, choice of specialty for the first postgraduate year, or program director evaluations. The preceptorships were…

University of Washington medical school graduates' (n=519) practice specialties were compared with the one or more indicated earlier as possible choices. Nearly 70 percent remained stable, double the proportion when stability is based on a single choice at medical school entry, suggesting students consider several possibilities and choose one of…

A longitudinal study of 175 students entering the University of Maryland Medical School in 1982 found initial specialty preference a poor predictor of later specialty choice, and intolerance of ambiguity was not significantly associated with either initial medical specialty preferences or choices at graduation despite dramatic specialty changes…

A study of 184 third-year medical students randomly assigned to ambulatory care and traditional inpatient curricula in an internal medicine clerkship found those with the ambulatory care experience were somewhat more likely to choose an ambulatory care career than those in the traditional curriculum. However, the clerkship experience did not…

A study of 11,136 1987 medical school seniors' specialty choices, before entering medical school and in preparation for residency, found similar preferences at both points, regardless of racial-ethnic background. (Author/MSE)

Five medical school characteristics previously identified as related to choice of family practice as a specialty were examined, with tuition level, for relationship to specialty choice among U.S. medical graduates between July 1986 and December 1987. Only two of the factors were found to be statistically relevant. (Author/MSE)

A rigorous approach to conducting nonstatistical meta-analyses of research literature is presented and illustrated in a study of literature on primary care medical specialty choice. The approach described includes model development, literature retrieval and coding, quality rating, annotation of high-quality references, and synthesizing the subset…

A study investigated relationships between specialty choice, success in obtaining residency choice, race (particularly underrepresented minorities), and gender among 14,450 medical residency matching program participants. Patterns of specialty switching after the first year of residency were also examined. Detailed tables of results and…

Analysis of data from an annual graduating medical students' survey revealed that a required third-year family medicine clerkship of at least four weeks is associated with a higher percentage of students choosing training and specialty certification in family practice. Whether clerkship inspires or reinforces preexisting choices is not indicated.…

A survey of 723 medical school graduates investigated motivations for early specialty selections and later changes and factors involved in current specialty choice. Perceived match of personality and specialty, technology and methodology characteristic of specialty, and time for family were critical. Greater awareness of career lifestyles is…

Interviews with college students who had either applied to medical school (n=500), were qualified for admission but did not apply (n=277), or were typical undergraduates (n=1003) not applying to medical school found that expected job satisfaction was an extremely important career choice factor. Views of 93 premedical advisors on characteristics of…

Students were asked to state their selected specialty and to rank the importance that each of 25 influences listed on a questionnaire had in making their specialty choice. Selected specialties were classified into three groups: noncontrollable lifestyle, controllable lifestyle, and surgery. (MLW)

Dartmouth Medical School has developed two career planning programs using graduates, decreasing the specialty practice information gap commonly facing medical students. One is a series of non-credit mini-elective courses providing one to three days' experience in a practitioner's office. The other is a career day for first- and second-year…

Directors (n=469) participating in the National Resident Matching Program and responding to a survey felt the selection process distorted the senior year for medical students. They supported development of a centralized residency application service with electronic transmission of data. (DB)

The survey of 148 graduates of the combined M.D./Ph.D. Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University (Missouri) found that 95 percent chose to enter residency programs rather than postdoctoral fellowships and 89 percent of those who had completed all training planned to join academic institutions or the National Institutes of Health.…