Factors Influencing Surgical Career Choices and Advancement in Ireland and Britain

Corrigan, Mark; Shields, Conor; Redmond, H. P.

doi:10.1007/s00268-007-9175-3

Cited by 30 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Doctors rejecting the hospital‐based and surgical specialties or paediatrics were most likely to specify reasons related to quality of life, such as working hours and working conditions 15 . The motives behind specialty choice are complicated, but career‐related aspects and intellectual challenge, personal lifestyle factors, relationships with patients and working hours seem to be important 16–18 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Residents’ reasons for specialty choice: influence of gender, time, patient and career

et al. 2010

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OBJECTIVE This study examined reasons for specialty choice among Swiss residents (post graduate doctors training in specialties). METHODS In 2006, a questionnaire was sent to 8626 Swiss residents registered in postgraduate medical training programmes to obtain specialist qualifications. The response rate was 65% (n = 5631). As residents are allowed to decide on the specialty they want to acquire later in the training process, only residents who had already chosen a specific specialty were included (n = 5038). In responding, residents rated the importance of 19 factors in making their choice of specialty. Categorical principal component analysis was conducted to obtain underlying dimensions within the reasons for choice. A two-way analysis of variance was performed for each dimension to compare the mean object scores for the 10 specialties chosen by the most residents and to examine possible interactions by gender and year of graduation. Contrasts between the specialties were analysed with Scheffe post hoc tests. RESULTS Categorical principal component analyses yielded three factors underlying residents' choice of specialty, which explained 40.8% of the variance in responses: work and time-related aspects; career-related aspects, and patient orientation. Women considered work and time-related aspects and patient orientation to be more important factors in their choice, and career-related aspects to be less important, than did men. Career-related aspects became less important with advancing training status. CONCLUSIONS This study showed that reasons for specialty choice differ according to gender, year of graduation and specialty. With progressing training status, gender differences in reasons for choice and specialty choice may become more pronounced, especially regarding career aspects, which may lead to a change in preferred specialty. Therefore, a modular constructed postgraduate training programme might give residents the flexibility to change from one specialty to another.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Residents’ reasons for specialty choice: influence of gender, time, patient and career

et al. 2010

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“…3 Differences by year of graduation and career stage, in factors that influence specialty choice, are also apparent. [4][5][6][7] The impact of the feminisation of the medical workforce upon career choice is important, with research in the USA indicating that preference for a controllable lifestyle increased over an eight-year period to 2002, and this increase was observed in both male and female doctors. 8 In the UK, there is evidence to show that domestic circumstances were more important to both female and male doctors who graduated in 2008-2009 compared with 1993-2002.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors influencing junior doctors’ choices of future specialty: trends over time and demographics based on results from UK national surveys

2015

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Objective: To study trends in factors influencing junior doctors' choice of future specialty. Design: Respondents were asked whether each of 15 factors had a great deal of influence on their career choice, a little influence or no influence on it. Percentages are reported of those who specified that a factor had a great deal of influence on their career choice. . Prospects for promotion were less important to recent cohorts (16%) than older cohorts (21%), as were financial prospects (respectively, 10% and 14%). Domestic circumstances and working hours were considered more important, and financial prospects less important, by women than men. Inclination before medical school was rated as important by 41% of doctors who were over 30 years old, compared with 13% of doctors who were under 21, at the time of starting medical school. Conclusions: The increasing importance of both domestic circumstances and enthusiasm for their specialty choice in recent cohorts suggest that today's young doctors prize both work-life balance and personal fulfilment at work more highly than did their predecessors. The differences in motivations of older and younger generations of doctors, men and women, and doctors who start medical school relatively late are worthy of note.

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“…because of limited availability of training places). Lifestyle factors, such as work/life balance or intensity of out-of-hours work, have previously been shown to be significant reasons given by individuals for leaving surgery [14,15]. The early years following graduation are an important time of increasing maturity and changes of personal circumstances such as marriage and starting a family.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early career choices and successful career progression in surgery in the UK: prospective cohort studies

et al. 2010

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BackgroundChanges to the structure of medical training worldwide require doctors to decide on their career specialty at an increasingly early stage after graduation. We studied trends in career choices for surgery, and the eventual career destinations, of UK graduates who declared an early preference for surgery.MethodsPostal questionnaires were sent, at regular time intervals after qualification, to all medical qualifiers from all UK medical schools in selected qualification years between 1974 and 2005. They were sent in the first year after qualification, at year three and five years after qualification, and at longer time intervals thereafter.ResultsResponses were received from 27 749 of 38 280 doctors (73%) at year one, 23 468 of 33151 (71%) at year three, and 17 689 of 24 870 (71%) at year five. Early career preferences showed that surgery has become more popular over the past two decades. Looking forward from early career choice, 60% of respondents (64% of men, 48% of women) with a first preference for a surgical specialty at year one eventually worked in surgery (p < 0.001 for the male-female comparison). Looking backward from eventual career destinations, 90% of responders working in surgery had originally specified a first choice for a surgical specialty at year one. 'Match' rates between eventual destinations and early choices were much higher for surgery than for other specialties. Considering factors that influenced early specialty choice 'a great deal', comparing aspiring surgeons and aspiring general practitioners (GPs), a significantly higher percentage who chose surgery than general practice specified enthusiasm for the specialty (73% vs. 53%), a particular teacher or department (34% vs. 12%), inclinations before medical school (20% vs. 11%), and future financial prospects (24% vs. 13%); and a lower percentage specified that hours and working conditions had influenced their choice (21% vs. 71%). Women choosing surgery were influenced less than men by their inclinations before medical school or by their future financial prospects.ConclusionsSurgery is a popular specialty choice in the UK. The great majority of doctors who progressed in a surgical career made an early and definitive decision to do so.

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Factors Influencing Surgical Career Choices and Advancement in Ireland and Britain

Abstract: Academic and clinical factors play an important role in career choice. However, it is clear that lifestyle factors predominate in determining an individual's career decisions in surgery.

Cited by 30 publications

References 37 publications

Residents’ reasons for specialty choice: influence of gender, time, patient and career

Residents’ reasons for specialty choice: influence of gender, time, patient and career

Factors influencing junior doctors’ choices of future specialty: trends over time and demographics based on results from UK national surveys

Early career choices and successful career progression in surgery in the UK: prospective cohort studies

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