Medical Specialty Choice and Related Factors of Brazilian Medical Students and Recent Doctors
Ligia Correia Lima de Souza, Vitor R. R. Mendonça, Gabriela B. C. Garcia, Ediele C. Brandão, Manoel Barral-Netto

TL;DR
This study explores factors influencing Brazilian medical students and recent doctors in choosing or rejecting medical specialties.
Contribution
The study identifies specific lifestyle and extracurricular factors influencing specialty choices in Brazilian medical professionals.
Findings
Specialty choice often occurs during the internship period in medical school.
Extracurricular activities are highly associated with the respective medical area.
Financial reasons and personal time are key factors in controllable lifestyle specialties.
Abstract
Choosing a medical specialty is an important, complex, and not fully understood process. The present study investigated the factors that are related to choosing and rejecting medical specialties in a group of students and recent medical doctors. A cross-sectional survey of 1,223 medical students and doctors was performed in Brazil in 2012. A standardized literature-based questionnaire was applied that gathered preferable or rejected specialties, and asked questions about extracurricular experiences and the influence of 14 factors on a Likert-type scale from 0 to 4. Specialties were grouped according to lifestyle categories: controllable and uncontrollable, which were subdivided into primary care, internal medicine, and surgical specialties. Notably, the time period of rejection was usually earlier than the time period of intended choice (p < 0.0001, χ2 = 107.2). The choice mainly…
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Taxonomy
TopicsEducation, Innovation and Language Studies
