title: Characteristic profiles among students and junior doctors with specific career preferences.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Factors influencing specialty choice have been studied in an attempt to find incentives to enhance the workforce in certain specialties. The notion of "controllable lifestyle (CL) specialties," defined by work hours and income, is gaining in popularity. As a result, many reports advocate providing a 'lifestyle-friendly' work environment to attract medical graduates. However, little has been documented about the priority in choosing specialties across the diverse career opportunities.This nationwide study was conducted in Japan with the aim of identifying factors that influence specialty choice. It looked for characteristic profiles among senior students and junior doctors who were choosing between different specialties.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a survey of 4th and 6th (final)-year medical students and foundation year doctors, using a questionnaire enquiring about their specialty preference and to what extent their decision was influenced by a set of given criteria. The results were subjected to a factor analysis. After identifying factors, we analysed a subset of responses from 6th year students and junior doctors who identified a single specialty as their future career, to calculate a z-score (standard score) of each factor and then we plotted the scores on a cobweb chart to visualise characteristic profiles.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Factor analysis yielded 5 factors that influence career preference. Fifteen specialties were sorted into 4 groups based on the factor with the highest z-score: "fulfilling life with job security" (radiology, ophthalmology, anaesthesiology, dermatology and psychiatry), "bioscientific orientation" (internal medicine subspecialties, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, emergency medicine, urology, and neurosurgery), and "personal reasons" (paediatrics and orthopaedics). Two other factors were "advice from others" and "educational experience". General medicine / family medicine and otolaryngology were categorized as "intermediate" group because of similar degree of influence from 5 factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  What is valued in deciding a career varies between specialties. Emphasis on lifestyle issues, albeit important, might dissuade students and junior doctors who are more interested in bioscientific aspects of the specialty or have strong personal reasons to pursue the career choice. In order to secure balanced workforce across the specialties, enrolling students with varied background and beliefs should be considered in the student selection process.
authors.affiliation: King's College London School of Medicine, London, UK. yuko.takeda@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Kunimasa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Morio
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Snell
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Otaki
authors.forename: Miyako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kai
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D003625:Data Collection; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D008511:Medicine; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
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