ArticlePostgraduate medical journal2018
Career specialty choices of UK medical graduates of 2015 compared with earlier cohorts: questionnaire surveys.
Article in Postgraduate medical journal, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Specialty preferences and influencing factors among undergraduate medical students in Ain Shams University.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- What the next generation of doctors want from a career in psychiatry: longitudinal survey of UK trainees and medical students.BJPsych bulletin · 2026Article
- Medical student perceptions and career intentions toward neurosurgery: results from an international multicentre study.Neurosurgical review · 2025Article
- Is There a Relationship Between Medical Student Mistreatment and Specialty Choice and Career Intentions? A Systematic Review.Medical science educator · 2025Review
- Female interns are not choosing radiology as a career-national survey providing insights into gender imbalance.European radiology · 2025Article
- A slide into obscurity? The current state of histology education in Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand medical curricula in 2022-2023.Anatomical sciences education · 2024Article
- Factors Affecting Specialty Training Preference Among UK Medical Students (FAST): Protocol for a National Cross-Sectional Survey.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- Team players and helpers - describing professional identity among finnish physicians in a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Perception of family medicine as the career option among young Indian graduates.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2023Article
- Career intentions of medical students in the UK: a national, cross-sectional study (AIMS study).BMJ open · 2023Article
- Ascertaining the Career Intentions of Medical Students (AIMS) in the United Kingdom Post Graduation: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- 'Factors influencing future career choices of Queen's University Belfast Medical students.'The Ulster medical journal · 2023Article
- Specialty preferences of studying-abroad medical students from low- and middle-income countries.BMC medical education · 2023Article
- Reasons and resolutions for gender inequality among cardiologists and cardiology trainees.The British journal of cardiology · 2023Article
- An evaluation of a student-led career profiling project to support the exploration of a career in general practice and other specialties.BJGP open · 2022Article
- Sex diversity within U.S. residencies: a cross-sectional study of trends from 2011 to 2019.BMC medical education · 2022Article
- Lessons from a breast cell annotation competition series for school pupils.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Being a good educational supervisor.BJA education · 2021Review
- Gender Differences and Influencing Factors in Specialty Choices: Findings From One Medical School in China.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Predictors of ophthalmology career success (POCS) study.BMJ open ophthalmology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on byMedical careers.2019
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo report the career specialty choices of UK medical graduates of 2015 one year after graduation and to compare these with the choices made at the same postgraduate stage by previous cohorts.
designNational survey using online and postal questionnaires.
settingUK.
participantsUK-trained medical graduates.
main outcome measuresGrouped and individual specialty choices.
resultsThe response rate was 41.3% (3040/7095). Among the graduates of 2015, general practice (27.8% of first choices) and hospital medical specialties (26.5%) were the most frequent first choices of long-term career. First choices for general practice declined among women from 36.1% for the 2005-2009 cohorts to 33.3% for the 2015 cohort, and among men from 22.4% for the 2005-2009 cohorts to 19.3% for the 2015 cohort. First choices for surgery declined among men (from 29.5% for the 2005-2009 cohorts to 21.7% for the 2015 cohort), but not among women (12.3% for the 2005-2009 cohorts and 12.5% for the 2015 cohort). There was an increase in the percentage of first choices for anaesthesia, psychiatry, radiology and careers outside medicine. Anaesthesia, oncology, paediatrics and radiology increased in popularity over time among men, but not among women.
conclusionsCareer choices for general practice remain low. Other current shortage specialties, apart from radiology and psychiatry, are not showing an increase in the number of doctors who choose them. Large gender differences remain in the choices for some specialties. Further work is needed into the determinants of junior doctors' choices for shortage specialties and those with large gender imbalances.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.