Abstract
BackgroundThe choice of medical specialty is related to multiple factors, students’ values, and specialty perceptions. Research in this area is needed in low- and middle-income countries, where the alignment of specialty training with national healthcare needs has a complex local interdependency. The study aimed to identify factors that influence specialty choice among medical students.MethodsSenior students at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Faculty of Medicine answered a questionnaire covering demographics, personal experiences, vocational features, and other factors related to specialty choice. Chi-square tests and factor analyses were performed.ResultsThe questionnaire was applied to 714 fifth-year students, and 697 provided complete responses (response rate 81%). The instrument Cronbach’s alpha was 0.8. The mean age was 24 ± 1 years; 65% were women. Eighty percent of the students wanted to specialize, and 60% had participated in congresses related to the specialty of interest. Only 5% wanted to remain as general practitioners. The majority (80%) wanted to enter a core specialty: internal medicine (29%), general surgery (24%), pediatrics (11%), gynecology and obstetrics (11%) and family medicine (4%). The relevant variables for specialty choice were grouped in three dimensions: personal values that develop and change during undergraduate training, career needs to be satisfied, and perception of specialty characteristics.ConclusionsSpecialty choice of medical students in a middle-income country public university is influenced by the undergraduate experience, the desire to study a subspecialty and other factors (including having skills related to the specialty and type of patients).
Highlights
The choice of medical specialty is related to multiple factors, students’ values, and specialty perceptions
Demographics The questionnaire was completed by 697 students, a response rate of 81%
At National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), students have access to free medical training, whether they attended public or private High Schools; in our sample, 82% studied in a public High School
Summary
The choice of medical specialty is related to multiple factors, students’ values, and specialty perceptions. The professional path of health professions students involves many high-stakes decisions These begin with the choice to study medicine, selecting a medical school, followed by the decision to enter a specialty [1]. Despite the importance and lifelong relevance of specialty choice in medicine, there is relatively little research in this area, in low- and middleincome countries [9] This is noteworthy since emerging economies frequently have issues of misalignment among some of the following elements: the creation of new medical schools, size of admission cohorts, capabilities and limitations of clinical sites to provide specialty training, healthcare specialty needs of the national health system and geographical distributions of the graduated specialists. There is, an urgent need for current and relevant data in order to make more evidence-based decisions, otherwise medical students will continue following gut feelings, tradition, or familial preferences
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