title: Career motivations of male and female medical students.
abstract: Australian medical students (N = 645) were asked at the beginning of their training to rank the importance of a list of motivations relevant to their choice of medicine as a career. Both male and female students ranked the desire to help others as the most important motivation, closely followed by the scientific nature and the intellectual challenge of the profession of medicine. Both genders rated considerations of status and prestige as of low importance. These findings are similar to surveys from other countries that have reported altruism and intellectual challenge as prime motivations for both genders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Sciences in Medicine, University of Sydney, NSW Australia. jtodisco@bsim.su.oz.au.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Todisco
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayes
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Farnill
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000533:Altruism; D002321:Career Choice; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009517:New South Wales; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*