ArticleBMC medical education2019
Specialty choice determinants among Mexican medical students: a cross-sectional study.
Article in BMC medical education, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring factors influencing medical specialty choice among undergraduates in The Gambia: a situated expectancy-value theory approach.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Stereotypes and social representations associated with pediatric surgeons among medical students, residents and physicians: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Choosing the Path: Insights Into Zambian Medical Students' Specialty Selections.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Geriatrics as a specialty: Insights from Mexican medical students' decision-making process.PloS one · 2025Article
- Aspirations to study medicine, perceptions of a good doctor, and their influence on specialty choice among medical students.PloS one · 2025Article
- Factors affecting the specialty choice among medical students of Saudi Arabia; an exploratory study.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Exploring gender disparity in medicine: perceptions of female physicians in Lebanon.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- How neurologists are viewed by their colleagues: exploring stereotypes and social representations of neurologists.Journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Article
- Factors That Influence Undergraduate Medical Students to Choose General Surgery as a Future Career in Saudi Arabia.Cureus · 2023Article
- Determining Factors Influencing Specialty Preferences of Iranian Medical Doctors: A Qualitative Study.Iranian journal of medical sciences · 2022Article
- Role of Female Research at the Asociacion Mexicana de Cirugia General Annual Meeting: A Retrospective Analysis From 2013 to 2019.Frontiers in surgery · 2022Article
- A thematic network for factors affecting the choice of specialty education by medical students: a scoping study in low-and middle-income countries.BMC medical education · 2021Article
- Factors influencing medical students' choice of specialization: A gender based systematic review.EClinicalMedicine · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe choice of medical specialty is related to multiple factors, students' values, and specialty perceptions. Research in this area is needed in low- and middle-income countries, where the alignment of specialty training with national healthcare needs has a complex local interdependency. The study aimed to identify factors that influence specialty choice among medical students.
methodsSenior students at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Faculty of Medicine answered a questionnaire covering demographics, personal experiences, vocational features, and other factors related to specialty choice. Chi-square tests and factor analyses were performed.
resultsThe questionnaire was applied to 714 fifth-year students, and 697 provided complete responses (response rate 81%). The instrument Cronbach's alpha was 0.8. The mean age was 24 ± 1 years; 65% were women. Eighty percent of the students wanted to specialize, and 60% had participated in congresses related to the specialty of interest. Only 5% wanted to remain as general practitioners. The majority (80%) wanted to enter a core specialty: internal medicine (29%), general surgery (24%), pediatrics (11%), gynecology and obstetrics (11%) and family medicine (4%). The relevant variables for specialty choice were grouped in three dimensions: personal values that develop and change during undergraduate training, career needs to be satisfied, and perception of specialty characteristics.
conclusionsSpecialty choice of medical students in a middle-income country public university is influenced by the undergraduate experience, the desire to study a subspecialty and other factors (including having skills related to the specialty and type of patients).
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