title: Effect of the inpatient general medicine rotation on student pursuit of a generalist career.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Entry into general internal medicine (GIM) has declined. The effect of the inpatient general medicine rotation on medical student career choices is uncertain.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the effect of student satisfaction with the inpatient general medicine rotation on pursuit of a career in GIM.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multicenter cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Third-year medical students between July 2001 and June 2003.
  
  
  METHODS
  End-of-internal medicine clerkship survey assessed satisfaction with the rotation using a 5-point Likert scale. Pursuit of a career in GIM defined as: (1) response of "Very Likely" or "Certain" to the question "How likely are you to pursue a career in GIM?"; and (2) entry into an internal medicine residency using institutional match data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four hundred and two of 751 (54%) students responded. Of the student respondents, 307 (75%) matched in the 2 years following their rotations. Twenty-eight percent (87) of those that matched chose an internal medicine residency. Of these, 8% (25/307) were pursuing a career in GIM. Adjusting for site and preclerkship interest, overall satisfaction with the rotation predicted pursuit of a career in GIM (odds ratio [OR] 3.91, P<.001). Although satisfaction with individual items did not predict pursuit of a generalist career, factor analysis revealed 3 components of satisfaction (attending, resident, and teaching). Adjusting for preclerkship interest, 2 factors (attending and teaching) were associated with student pursuit of a career in GIM (P<.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increased satisfaction with the inpatient general medicine rotation promotes pursuit of a career in GIM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. varora@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu
authors.forename: Vineet
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Arora
authors.forename: Tosha B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Wetterneck
authors.forename: Jeffrey L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Schnipper
authors.forename: Andrew D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Auerbach
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kaboli
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Wachter
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Levinson
authors.forename: Holly J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Humphrey
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Meltzer
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D016015:Logistic Models; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires