title: Disgust sensitivity and the 'non-rational' aspects of a career choice in surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Fitting trainee physicians to career paths remains an ongoing challenge in a highly fluid health workforce environment. Studies attempting to explain low interest in surgical careers have typically examined the relative impact of career and lifestyle values. The current work argues that emotional proclivities are potentially more important and that disgust sensitivity may help explain both low surgical interest as well as the tendency for female students to avoid surgical careers.
  
  
  METHODS
  216 medical students attending a required course in human behaviour completed measures of career intention, traditional predictors of career intention and dispositional disgust sensitivity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As predicted, logistic regression showed that greater disgust sensitivity predicted lower surgical career intention even when controlling for traditional career values (OR=0.45, 95%CI=0.21-0.95). Additionally, the gender effect indexing low female interest in surgical careers was no longer significant once disgust sensitivity was added to the model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The impact of disgust sensitivity on surgical interest was substantial and on par with established predictors of career intention. Disgust sensitivity may represent a potentially modifiable factor impacting surgical career choice, particularly among female students who are typically more disgust sensitive.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. n.consedine@auckland.ac.nz
authors.forename: Nathan S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Consedine
authors.forename: Tzu-Chieh
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Andrew G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Windsor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002321:Career Choice; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D013502:General Surgery; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament; D055815:Young Adult