In this article, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRSM) Short Reports in May 2011, author Vishal Luther addresses the difficulties of choosing a specialization for medical students. Questionnaires were administered and filled out by 115 final year students from a medical school in London, UK. In the questionnaire, students ranked their preferences for specializations as well as their certainty in their decision and whether or not they felt prepared to make this career decision at the end of medical school. Results showed a large degree of uncertainty with students being most confident in a ‘maybe’ response. There was an overwhelming (95%) agreement among the students that the end of medical school was not the preferred time for choosing their career path. Luther suggests that the results of this study call for an improvement in career guidance throughout medical school.
Summary: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21637400
Full text: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3105460/?tool=pubmed
PMID: 21637400