Family medicine as a career option: how students' attitudes changed during medical school.
OBJECTIVE
To track and describe career choice decisions of medical students as they progressed through their undergraduate training.


METHODS
Quantitative survey of each class at 5 points during their undergraduate experience. Each survey collected qualitative descriptors of students' current career choices.


METHODS
Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St John's.


METHODS
Undergraduate medical students in each year from 1999 to 2006.


METHODS
Number of students considering family medicine as a career option at 5 different data-collection points throughout the medical school curriculum.


RESULTS
Many students considered family medicine as a career choice early in their undergraduate experience. The number of students considering family medicine dropped significantly during the second year of the curriculum. This trend was consistent across all students surveyed. Although interest in family medicine as a career rebounded later in the curriculum, it never fully recovered.


CONCLUSIONS
A large percentage of medical students considered family medicine as a career choice when they entered medical school. The percentage dropped significantly by the end of the second year of training. Attention should be directed toward understanding how the undergraduate medical curriculum in the first 2 years can protect and cultivate interest in family medicine as a career choice.
Bethune
Cheri
C
Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 300 Prince Philip Dr, St John's, NL A1B 3V6. cbethune@mun.ca
Hansen
Penelope A
PA
Deacon
Diana
D
Hurley
Katrina
K
Kirby
Allison
A
Godwin
Marshall
M
D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D002321:Career Choice; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D000078329:Workforce