Abstract
The authors attempted to measure the influence of a physical diagnosis course and its preceptors on the career decisions of second-year medical students. They designed pre- and post-course questionnaires for 204 second- year medical students in a University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Advanced Physical Diagnosis course. They found that 48% of students changed their career choice during the study period, 75% believed their preceptor was a very good role model, and 39% thought their preceptor influenced their career choice. Students who believed their preceptor was a good role model were 31 times more likely to consider their preceptors' career (confidence interval [CI] 95, 4.1-236). In results from students precepted by primary care physicians, there was a nonsignificant trend toward choosing a primary care career (Odds Ratio [OR]) 1.6 [CI95, 0.7-3.3]). Factors associated with a final career choice of primary care were a primary care career choice at baseline (OR 8.5 [CI95, 3.8-19.0]) and a belief that physical diagnosis skills would be important to a future career (OR 4.7 [CI95, 1.1-20.0]). By multivariable analysis, only a primary care career choice at baseline remained significant (OR 8.7 [CI95, 3.5-21.3]). The authors concluded that good role models can influence students to consider alternative career choices, but this effect is still overshadowed by a student's baseline career choice. This reinforces the importance of selecting medical school applicants already inclined toward a primary care career.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 19-23 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | American Journal of the Medical Sciences |
Volume | 310 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1995 |
Keywords
- Career choice
- Medical education
- Medical students
- Physical examination
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Medicine(all)