| Literature DB >> 33149919 |
Trevor W Lambert1, Fay Smith1, Michael J Goldacre1.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To report doctors' early career preferences for emergency medicine, their eventual career destinations and factors influencing their career pathways.Entities:
Keywords: career choice; emergency medicine; junior physicians; medical education; medical workforce
Year: 2020 PMID: 33149919 PMCID: PMC7586038 DOI: 10.1177/2054270420961595
Source DB: PubMed Journal: JRSM Open ISSN: 2054-2704
Percentages of doctors in recent surveys who specified that each factor affected their career choice ‘a great deal’.
| Factor | Year 1 | Year 3 | Year 5 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EM | HPS | EM | HPS | EM | HPS | |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| Domestic circumstances | 29.7*** | 40.8 | 18.5*** | 33.2 | 33.3 | 38.1 |
| Hours/working conditions | 11.7*** | 25.7 | 18.5*** | 38.2 | 23.7*** | 43.3 |
| Eventual financial prospects | 4.5 | 6.7 | 4.8 | 6.9 | 7.1 | 5.9 |
| Promotion/career prospects | 7.1 | 12.6 | 18.5 | 17.4 | 21.2 | 25.6 |
| Self-appraisal of own skills/aptitudes | 29.6 | 30.7 | 50.7 | 48.6 | 64.0 | 61.4 |
| Advice from others | 11.4 | 13.7 | 17.8 | 22.5 | 5.3** | 15.2 |
| Student experience of the subject | 24.0 | 26.4 | 33.1 | 33.5 | 23.9 | 32.0 |
| A particular teacher/department | 20.9 | 21.0 | 21.9** | 34.4 | 17.5** | 32.5 |
| Inclinations before medical school | 12.8 | 10.4 | 11.6 | 8.3 | 15.8 | 8.2 |
| Experience of jobs so far | 24.2 | 29.6 | 71.2 | 60.7 | 65.8 | 65.3 |
| Enthusiasm/commitment | 36.4 | 39.4 | 85.6 | 87.6 | 79.8 | 84.0 |
| Availability of postgraduate training places | 13.3 | 14.7 | 20.7 | 14.0 | n/a | n/a |
| Availability of career posts | 15.2 | 14.8 | 24.7** | 15.0 | n/a | n/a |
| The requirement to repay student debt | 0.9 | 1.8 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Other reasons | 13.7 | 9.7 | 21.7 | 14.6 | 32.0 | 23.9 |
EM: emergency medicine; HPS: hospital physician specialties (see Methods). n/a denotes factors which were not included in specific surveys.
Year 1 data includes the 2012 and 2015 cohorts, year 3 data includes the 2012 cohort, and year 5 data includes the 2008 cohort.
p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001, comparing EM with hospital physician specialties, within each year, for each factor.
Career preferences for emergency medicine: graduates of 2015 and 2012 compared with earlier cohorts (percentages of respondents).
| Year 1 | Year 3 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graduation cohort(s) | Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total |
| First choice for emergency medicine | ||||||
| 2015 | 6.6 | 5.0 | 5.6 | – | – | – |
| 2012 | 5.6 | 3.9 | 4.5 | 7.9 | 6.5 | 7.1 |
| 2002–2009[ | 5.6 | 4.1 | 4.7 | 5.5 | 5.0 | 5.2 |
| 1993–2000 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 4.7 | 4.4 | 4.6 |
| First, second or third choice for emergency medicine | ||||||
| 2015 | 13.2 | 8.7 | 10.5 | – | – | – |
| 2012 | 12.2 | 7.4 | 9.2 | 13.9 | 10.2 | 11.7 |
| 2002–2009[ | 13.2 | 9.0 | 10.5 | 11.0 | 8.6 | 9.5 |
| 1993–2000 | 10.1 | 8.3 | 9.1 | 10.2 | 8.9 | 9.5 |
Numbers on which percentages are based are given in Table 6 in Appendix 1.
Cohort of 2009 studied in year one only.
Figure 1.Emergency medicine as a first choice (including ties).
Note: p values for chi square tests of linear trend: Year 1 men p < .001, women p = .10; Year 3 men p < .001, women p = .001; Year 5 men p < .001, women p = .19.
Figure 2.Emergency medicine as any choice.
Note: p values for chi square tests of linear trend: Year 1 men p < .001, women p = .46; Year 3 men p = .001, women p = .53; Year 5 men p = .013, women p = .79.
Certainty of career choice by specialty chosen and cohort group: percentages whose career choice was definite 1, 3, and 5 years after graduation.
| Year 1 first choice | Year 3 first choice | Year 5 first choice | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cohorts | EM | HPS | EM | HPS | EM | HPS |
| Percentage of respondents whose career choice was definite | ||||||
| 2015 | 20.5 | 16.6 | – | – | – | – |
| 2012 | 21.5 | 18.1 | 48.9 | 38.2 | – | – |
| 2009 | 21.8 | 16.2 | – | – | – | – |
| 2008 | 20.9 | 20.0 | 49.1 | 42.1 | 61.6 | 74.3 |
| 2002–2005 | 5.5 | 8.5 | 29.9 | 27.7 | 63.5 | 76.1 |
| 1993–2000 | 7.8 | 11.8 | 23.4 | 23.8 | 53.9 | 61.4 |
| Numbers on which percentages were based | ||||||
| 2015 | 35/171 | 126/761 | – | – | – | – |
| 2012 | 23/107 | 113/623 | 69/141 | 137/359 | – | – |
| 2009 | 26/119 | 115/709 | – | – | – | – |
| 2008 | 28/134 | 165/826 | 79/161 | 224/532 | 69/112 | 263/354 |
| 2002–2005 | 17/309 | 127/1496 | 85/284 | 260/939 | 127/200 | 569/748 |
| 1993–2000 | 32/408 | 327/2778 | 117/500 | 469/1967 | 208/386 | 1070/1742 |
EM: emergency medicine; HPS: hospital physician specialties (see Methods).
Numbers and percentages of medical graduates whose original preference was for emergency medicine who eventually practised in each of four different destinations in year 10 (looking forwards from early preference to later destinations): 2005 cohort.
| Final destination after 10 years | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EM | HPS | Other clinical specialties | GP | Total | ||||||
| % | N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | N | |
| Year 1 first choice | ||||||||||
| Male choosing EM | 20 | 9 | 23 | 10 | 30 | 13 | 27 | 12 | 100 | 44 |
| Female choosing EM | 15 | 7 | 23 | 11 | 32 | 15 | 30 | 14 | 100 | 47 |
| Total choosing EM | 18 | 16 | 23 | 21 | 31 | 28 | 29 | 26 | 100 | 91 |
| Year 3 first choice | ||||||||||
| Male choosing EM | 50 | 18 | 8 | 3 | 25 | 9 | 17 | 6 | 100 | 36 |
| Female choosing EM | 36 | 14 | 13 | 5 | 38 | 15 | 13 | 5 | 100 | 39 |
| Total choosing EM | 43 | 32 | 11 | 8 | 32 | 24 | 15 | 11 | 100 | 75 |
| Year 5 first choice | ||||||||||
| Male choosing EM | 86 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 100 | 29 |
| Female choosing EM | 69 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 100 | 26 |
| Total choosing EM | 78 | 43 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 100 | 55 |
EM: emergency medicine; HPS: hospital physician specialties (see Methods).
‘Other clinical specialties’ includes the following: emergency medicine, anaesthesia, clinical oncology, surgery, paediatrics, pathology, psychiatry, and radiology.
Numbers of respondents showing career preferences for emergency medicine, corresponding to percentages given in Table 1.
| Year 1 | Year 3 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graduation cohort(s) | Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total |
| First choice for emergency medicine | ||||||
| 2015 | 80/1206 | 91/1834 | 171/3040 | – | – | – |
| 2012 | 50/890 | 59/1508 | 109/2398 | 65/821 | 81/1242 | 146/2063 |
| 2002–2009* | 248/4408 | 320/7717 | 568/12125 | 178/3253 | 270/5433 | 448/8686 |
| 1993–2000 | 191/5161 | 220/6091 | 411/11252 | 240/5095 | 262/5920 | 502/11015 |
| First, second or third choice for emergency medicine | ||||||
| 2015 | 159/1206 | 160/1834 | 319/3040 | – | – | – |
| 2012 | 109/890 | 111/1508 | 220/2398 | 114/821 | 127/1242 | 241/2063 |
| 2002–2009* | 580/4408 | 697/7717 | 1277/12125 | 357/3253 | 466/5433 | 823/8686 |
| 1993–2000 | 522/5161 | 506/6091 | 1028/11252 | 519/5095 | 525/5920 | 1044/11015 |
*Cohort of 2009 studied in year one only.
Doctors who were working in emergency medicine in year 10, showing their career preferences in years 1, 3, and 5 (looking backwards from year 10 to preferences expressed in earlier years): 2005 cohort.
| Earlier career choices | Male | Female | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | N | % | N | % | N | |
| Year 1 | ||||||
| EM as untied first choice | 19 | 6 | 33 | 6 | 24 | 12 |
| EM as other choices[ | 23 | 7 | 22 | 4 | 22 | 11 |
| HPS | 16 | 5 | 17 | 3 | 16 | 8 |
| Other specialties | 42 | 13 | 28 | 5 | 37 | 18 |
| Total | 100 | 31 | 100 | 18 | 100 | 49 |
| Year 3 | ||||||
| EM as untied first choice | 58 | 15 | 67 | 12 | 61 | 27 |
| EM as other choices[ | 19 | 5 | 17 | 3 | 18 | 8 |
| HPS | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Other specialties | 23 | 6 | 11 | 2 | 18 | 8 |
| Total | 100 | 26 | 100 | 18 | 100 | 44 |
| Year 5 | ||||||
| EM as untied first choice | 92 | 24 | 90 | 18 | 91 | 42 |
| EM as other choices[ | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| HPS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other specialties | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Total | 100 | 26 | 100 | 20 | 100 | 46 |
EM: emergency medicine; HPS: hospital physician specialties (see Methods).
Tied first choice or 2nd or 3rd choice.