The effect of personal illness experience on career preference in medical students.
Medical students have a wide degree of personal experience of serious illness in themselves and those close to them. In about 4% of cases these experiences have influenced the choice of career specialty. However, formal statistical analysis within a large group of medical students could find no evidence for a relationship. It is suggested that this is due to the inadequacies of statistical methodology, which cannot demonstrate strong relationships in a minority of subjects, when the majority show no relationship. Almost half of the students gave reasons for particular career preferences, but in most cases these appeared to be strongly idiosyncratic.
Guy's Hospital Medical School, London, England.
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D001294:Attitude to Health; D002321:Career Choice; D006801:Humans; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*