ArticleBMC medical education2023
How often do medical students change career preferences over the course of medical school?
Article in BMC medical education, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Development and Delivery of a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Case-Based Learning Curriculum for Pre-Clerkship Medical Students.Plastic surgery (Oakville, Ont.) · 2026Article
- Early Exposure to Infectious Diseases Specialty Among Undergraduate Students With Interest in Healthcare Careers.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Career choice and interdisciplinary education in forensic pathology: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- General practice prestige: understanding medical students' perceptions - a repeated cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Understanding Factors Motivating Trainees to Pursue a Career in Radiology: An Interview Study.Cureus · 2026Article
- Dynamics of career attractiveness and preferences among Swiss medical students: an observational study at the end of the master's program.Medical education online · 2025Observational
- Identifying Gaps in Obstetrics and Gynecology Education: Insights From Clinical Vignettes.Cureus · 2025Article
- Medical student perceptions and career intentions toward neurosurgery: results from an international multicentre study.Neurosurgical review · 2025Article
- When Accelerated MD Program Is Not the Right Path: The Why and How to Support Accelerated Learners in the Transition to the 4-Year Program.Medical science educator · 2025Article
- The Attractive and Deterring Factors for Medical Students Towards Pathology as a Specialty in Saudi Arabia.Advances in medical education and practice · 2025Article
- A cross-sectional investigation of trend in career specialty preference among clinical year medical undergraduates, including factors influencing preferences and discouragement.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- How does career-related parental support benefit career adaptability of medical imaging technology students in Asia-Pacific LMICs? The roles of psychological capital and career values.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Aspirations to study medicine, perceptions of a good doctor, and their influence on specialty choice among medical students.PloS one · 2025Article
- From books to the bedside: post-graduation impact of 'Week On the Wards' on medical education.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Pathology skills lab: use of macroscopic tumor models in pathology teaching.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Article
- Student-Driven Anatomy: A Practical Guide to Enhancing Learning through Extracurricular Dissection.Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
- The Future Face of Surgery-Demographics of Students Interested in Surgery at an Academic Medical Center.Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionDuring the preclinical years, students typically do not have extensive exposure to clinical medicine. When they begin their clinical rotations, usually in the third year, the majority of the time is spent on core rotations with limited experience in other fields of medicine. Students then must decide on their careers early in their fourth year. We aimed to analyze how often medical students change their career preferences between the end of their second and their fourth year.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective, cohort study using the American Association of Medical Colleges Year 2 Questionnaire (Y2Q) and Graduating Questionnaire (GQ) from 2016 to 2020.
results20,408 students answered both surveys, but 2,165 had missing values on the career choice question and were excluded. Of the remaining students, 10,233 (56%) changed their career choice between the Y2 and GQ surveys. Fields into which students preferentially switched by the GQ survey included anesthesia, dermatology, ENT, family medicine, OB/GYN, pathology, PM&R, psychiatry, radiology, urology, and vascular surgery. Many characteristics, including future salary, the competitiveness of the field, and the importance of work-life balance, were significantly associated with a higher likelihood of changing career choices. On the other hand, having a mentor and the specialty content were associated with a lower likelihood of change.
conclusionA majority of students switched their career preferences from the Y2Q to the GQ. Additional research should be focused on curricular design that optimizes student satisfaction with career decisions. This may include early integration of a variety of specialties.
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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.