Abstract

Although medical student specialty choices shape the future of the healthcare workforce, factors influencing changes in specialty preference during training remain poorly understood.To explore if medical student distress and empathy predicts changes in students' specialty preference.A total of 858/1321 medical students attending five medical schools responded to surveys in 2006 and 2007. The survey included questions about specialty choice, burnout, depression, quality of life, and empathy.A total of 26% (205/799) changed their specialty preference over 1 year. Depersonalization--an aspect of burnout--was the only distress variable associated with change in specialty preference (OR, odds ratio 0.962 for each 1-point increase in score, p = 0.03). Empathy at baseline and changes in empathy over the course of 1 year did not predict change in specialty preference (all p > 0.05). On multi-variable analysis, being a third year (OR 1.92), being male (OR 1.48), and depersonalization score (OR 0.962 for each point increase) independently predicted a change in specialty preference. Distress and empathy did not independently predict students' losing interest in primary care whereas being a fourth-year student (OR 1.83) and being female (OR 1.83) did.Among those who did have a major change in their specialty preference, distress and empathy did not play a major role.

View details for DOI 10.3109/0142159X.2012.644830

View details for Web of Science ID 000299701500004

View details for PubMedID 22289009