Dr. Gazdik
Bio 305 Genetics
24 February 2011
In the article “Why medical school students switch careers” by Ian Scott, the author discusses the many factors that influence medical students to switch from Family medicine to specialties in the medical field.
According to Dr. Ian Scott “Seven factors influenced switching career choices; 6 of these (medical lifestyle, encouragement, positive clinical exposure, economics or politics, competence or skills, and ease of residence entry)”. These are the major factors that control a student’s choice to change the focus of their medical school studies. In order to figure out who changed their major focus of study they had students who were entering medical school fill out a questionnaire asking them to list their top three career choices and focuses. Out of the total of 1321 students who were asked complete the survey 1181 of the students replied. After the students had completed their preclinical training they were again asked to complete a second questionnaire. Out of the 1181 students that had completed the survey the first time only 872 responded to the second survey. However, out of the 872 students that replied to the survey 27 of them left the question answering their top three career options blank. This left the focus group with 845 students who gave data for them to research and analyze. In the questionnaire they also asked students certain background information. From this background information they were able to see that “830 students listing their undergraduate training held Bachelor of Science or similar degrees”. This means that fifteen people who had entered medical school held degrees that were different from a degree in science. A conclusion that came out of this study that surprised me was that relationship status had no effect on the students switching their career. The major information that the researchers were looking for was the number of students who changed their career from a specialty to family medicine or from Family medicine to a specialty. According to the data “About 19.6% (166 students) changed their top career choice to a specialty or family medicine; 88 switched to family medicine, and 78 switched to a specialty”. Also the researchers found that 137 of the people who took both surveys retained their interest in the career of family medicine. Then the researchers cross referenced the first questionnaire and the second one to compile the date to fully understand how the factors affect the changes of career. When they cross referenced this is the date they compiled
“At medical school entry, 215 (25.4%) of the 845 students who answered both entry and follow-up questionnaires listed family medicine as their first career choice. This number rose to 225 (26.6%) at the end of the preclinical years”.
So the overall increase to family medicine was ten people which, does not seem like a big shift but one has to look at 88 students who changed their career from a specialty to family medicine in relation to the 73 students that switched from family medicine to a specialty. Out of all of the students that switched their career only a ratio of 1 to 30 said it was for a reason other than the seven major factors that have been stated.
Work cited
Scott, Ian, Margot Gowans, Bruce Wright, and Fraser Brenneis. "Why Medical Students Switch Careers: Changing Course during the Preclinical Years of Medical School." Canadian Family Physician 53: January (2007). PubMed.com. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.
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