title: What do UK medical students value most in their careers? A discrete choice experiment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many individual- and job-related factors are known to influence medical careers decision making. Previous research has extensively studied medical trainees' (residents') and students' views of the factors that are important. However, how trainees and students trade off these factors at times of important careers-related decision making is under-researched. Information about trade-offs is crucial to the development of effective policies to enhance the recruitment and retention of junior doctors.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Our aim was to investigate the strength of UK medical students' preferences for the characteristics of training posts in terms of monetary value.
  
  
  METHODS
  We distributed a paper questionnaire that included a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to final-year medical students in six diverse medical schools across the UK. The main outcome measure was the monetary value of training post characteristics, based on willingness to forgo and willingness to accept extra income for a change in each job characteristic calculated from regression coefficients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 810 medical students answered the questionnaire. The presence of good working conditions was by far the most influential characteristic of a training position. Medical students consider that, as newly graduated doctors, they will require compensation of an additional 43.68% above average earnings to move from a post with excellent working conditions to one with poor working conditions. Female students value excellent working conditions more highly than male students, whereas older medical students value them less highly than younger students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Students on the point of completing medical school and starting postgraduate training value good working conditions significantly more than they value desirable geographical location, unit reputation, familiarity with the unit or opportunities for partners or spouses. This intelligence can be used to address the crisis in workforce staffing that has developed in the UK and opens up fruitful areas for future research across contexts and in terms of examining stated preferences versus actual career-related behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Education for Medical and Dental Sciences, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
authors.forename: Jennifer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Cleland
authors.affiliation: North Deanery, National Health Service (NHS) Education for Scotland, Aberdeen, UK.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.affiliation: Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
authors.forename: Verity
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.affiliation: Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Krucien
authors.affiliation: Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Skåtun
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires