Factors in the choice of academic or practice careers in pulmonary medicine.

The characteristics, motives, and sources of job satisfaction were compared between persons choosing a research career in academic pulmonary medicine and those choosing a career in the practice of pulmonary medicine. In a first study, established practitioners and academic researchers were asked what the main influences were on their career decisions, from what they obtained job satisfaction, and why they did or did not choose academic medicine. After these results were obtained a second questionnaire was sent to all pulmonary fellows in U.S. programs asking them their future career plans, reasons for their career choices, factors in their job satisfaction, and attitudes toward an academic career. Both current and future researchers desired intellectual challenge, continued learning, and an opportunity to investigate, whereas established and future practitioners derived more satisfaction from patient care. The opportunity to be creative, the chance to work fixed hours, and to gain national recognition were more important to future academic researchers. The prospective practitioners rated helping people, freedom from bureaucracy, and income level as the major determinants of their career choice. In addition to the personal qualities, many environmental factors, such as participating in a successful research project and encouragement from faculty, were important in leading a pulmonary fellow to select a research career.