Using medical specialty and selection criteria clusters to study specialty selection by Israeli medical students

Abstract

BackgroundDuring their final year of medical school, Israeli students must consider which specialty to choose for residency. Based on the vocational counseling literature we presumed that choices are made by selecting from a cluster of related specialties while considering professional and socio-economic issues.MethodsQuestionnaires distributed to final-year medical students at two Israeli medical schools ascertained inclinations toward various medical specialties and the importance of various selection criteria. Analysis focused on seven specialties where >20% of students reported they had positive inclinations. For each such specialty, the specialty and selection criteria query were compared using unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-tests to determine differences between students with positive inclinations toward the specialty with those not so inclined. These data were placed in tables, with the significant differences highlighted to facilitate visual recognition of cluster patterns.ResultsCompleted questionnaires were obtained from 317 of 455 students. Students often had positive inclinations toward more than one specialty (specialty clusters) associated with a group of selection criteria (selection criteria clusters). For example, interest in internal medicine was clustered with interest in internal medicine subspecialties, cardiology and research. Furthermore, there was a “reciprocal” aspect to some specialty cluster patterns. For example, those interested in internal medicine had little interest in surgical specialties. Selection criteria clusters revealed occupational interests and socio-environmental factors associated with the specialty clusters. For example, family medicine, which clustered with pediatrics and psychiatry, had a sub-cluster of: Bedside specialty with family orientation affording long-term patient care. Another sub-cluster was time for childrearing and family, only daytime work and outpatient care. Clusters also revealed students’ perceptions that differed from expected: Cardiology is changing from a cognitive to a procedure-oriented subspecialty, clustering not only with internal medicine and its subspecialties but also with emergency medicine, surgical subspecialties and anesthesiology.ConclusionsThe concept that career choice involves selecting from a cluster of related specialties provides information about the specialties students might be considering. Moreover, students are not only looking for individual aspects of a specialty, but for a package including clusters of socio-economic and occupational features. Practically, examining clusters can help in career counseling of medical students and assist residency program directors in marketing their specialties.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-017-0854-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Relationship Between Medical Students’ Career Priority and Specialty Choice: A Nationwide Multicenter Survey

“…As aforementioned, the concept by Weiss et al that medical students may chose a cluster of related specialties based on a cluster of socio-economic and occupational features [7] might be particularly useful in understanding the process of specialty choice. Our exploratory factor analysis and the subsequent multilevel logistic regression analyses revealed that career priorities under the 'primary care orientation' category had positive association with choosing general practice, emergency medicine, internal medicine, and paediatrics, all of which could potentially have some primary care aspects.…”

“…sex [3,4] , birthplace [3,4] , and physician parents [5] ) and career priorities [3,6] . Moreover, it has been pointed out that medical students may choose from a group of related specialties based on a cluster of socio-economic and occupational features [7] . Thus, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between demographic and occupational features and examine their effect on career preferences.…”

Medical students’ perceptions of a career in family medicine

“…The challenge to the FM leadership is twofold. Firstly, to ensure that students expressing interest in FM medicine actually enter FM residencies and are not enticed to switched to other primary care specialties, such as internal medicine and pediatrics, which are in the same interest cluster as family practice [ 13 ]. These two specialties often tempt students to pursue subspecialization leading to their loss as primary care providers.…”

“…A 5-point Likert scale was used for answering the questions in Sections 1-4. Results from the current dataset have been published without an in-depth focus on issues surrounding FM [ 10 , 13 – 15 ].…”

Implementing Fuzzy AHP and FUCOM to evaluate critical success factors for sustained academic quality assurance and ABET accreditation

“…Similarly, a curriculum map may be generated defining places for different learnings and associated activities [27]. The operationalization of OBL requires active involvement of all stakeholders such as students, faculty, educational environment, curriculum and assessment committees, and advisory board [5]. Backward design model is the most suited approach for designing OBL curriculums [35].…”