Cross-sectional-derived determinants of satisfaction with physician-scientist training among Canadian MD/PhD graduates

Abstract

Although MD/PhD programs require considerable commitment on behalf of students and learning institutions, they serve as an integral means of training future physician-scientists; individuals who engage in translational medicine. As attrition from these programs has longstanding effects on the community of translational medicine and comes at substantial cost to MD/PhD programs, we aimed to identify determinants that were associated with satisfaction among MD/PhD graduates, a feature that might inform on limiting program attrition. Anonymized data from a national survey of 139 Canadian MD/PhD alumni was analyzed. Factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the reliability of three questions that measured satisfaction and logistic regression was used to assess the association of outcomes with 17 independent determinants. Eighty-one percent of graduates were satisfied with MD/PhD training. Factor analysis confirmed the reliability of the questions measuring satisfaction. Determinants of self-reported satisfaction with physician-scientist training included co-authorship of more than six manuscripts during MD/PhD training. Additionally, protected research time at the place of current appointment was strongly associated with agreement that MD/PhD training had helped career progression. Demographic variables were not associated with any satisfaction indicator. Taken together, the majority of Canadian MD/PhD graduates are satisfied with their physician-scientist training. Project collaboration leading to co-authorships and protected research time were strongly associated with training satisfaction among graduates. If the value of collaboration can be realized among current and future physician-scientist trainees who are dissatisfied with their training, this might ultimately reduce program attrition.

Predictors of sustained research involvement among MD/PhD programme graduates

“…We collected outcomes data for alumni of eight Canadian MD/PhD programmes by conducting a national survey of Canadian MD/PhD programme alumni (University of British Columbia Behavioural Research Ethics Board H15‐02871) . The survey, which was conducted between November 2015 and October 2016, consisted of 41 questions designed to evaluate the demographic characteristics, education, career trajectory, publication and funding records, debt, and career and lifestyle satisfaction of Canadian MD/PhD programme graduates who had graduated before September 2015.…”

Ethno-racial Disparities in Canada’s Labour Market: the Case of Recent Graduates

“…First of all, most of them do not subdivide the visible-minority category into its subgroups, which is highly important due to the amount of heterogeneity within this single label. Secondly, the ones that do make more detailed subgroup distinctions base their research on very specific subsamples from which only "niche" conclusions can be made-such as region specific (Krahn & Maximova, 2005), university specific (Grayson, 2004), occupational industry specific (Li, 2012), level of education specific (Twa et al, 2017), or field of study specific (Stenstrom et al, 2013) among others. These types of studies are not as helpful in making conclusions on ethno-racial disparities in Canada's labour market as a whole, because they are too narrow.…”

Measuring student satisfaction as the first assessment of the Program of Combined Studies in Medicine, an MD/PhD-like program of the Faculty of Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico

“…The purpose of the PECEM is for graduates to become leaders as physician-scientists with very important roles in the translation of research into practice, serving as a bridge between new scientific knowledge and clinical medicine [3,5]. The literature on this subject suggests that decreased trainee satisfaction during MD/PhD programs might result in attrition and diminish students' longstanding commitments to sustained research involvement [5].…”

“…The purpose of the PECEM is for graduates to become leaders as physician-scientists with very important roles in the translation of research into practice, serving as a bridge between new scientific knowledge and clinical medicine [3,5]. The literature on this subject suggests that decreased trainee satisfaction during MD/PhD programs might result in attrition and diminish students' longstanding commitments to sustained research involvement [5]. Thus, quality and improvement of an academic program impacts student satisfaction, which affects a student's performance and physical and psychological health and correlates with academic activityrelated factors [6][7][8][9].…”