title: What does a good lifestyle mean to you? Perspectives of 4th-year U.S. medical students with military service obligations in 2009.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A specialties' lifestyle is known to be important for specialty selection, but how medical students define this concept is unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this article is to determine how 4th-year medical students perceive lifestyle of specialties.
  
  
  METHODS
  All 4th-year U.S. medical students graduating in 2009 with a military service obligation were invited to participate in an electronic survey. Responses to an open-ended question, "When someone says 'That specialty has a good lifestyle,' what does that mean to you?" were classified into themes by a consensus of the authors and then compared to the students' selected specialty.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Response rate for the questionnaire was 46% (369 of 797). Four themes describing lifestyle emerged: "schedule control" (67% of students), "off time" (53%), "financial aspects" (48%), and "work life" (26%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medical students' definition of a "good lifestyle" includes four themes, which should be used in future research of the lifestyle factor of specialty selection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD, USA. kent.dezee@us.army.mil
authors.forename: Kent J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Dezee
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Corriere
authors.forename: Stacy M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Chronister
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Durning
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hemann
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Janice L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hanson
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Hemmer
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maurer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008511:Medicine; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D010465:Perception; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce