| Changes in medical students' views of internal medicine careers from 1990 to 2007. | |
| | |
MedLine Citation:
|
PMID: 21518941 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
|
BACKGROUND: The United States faces a shortage of primary care physicians and declining number of medical students choosing primary care careers. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of 2 similar national surveys of senior medical students from 1990 and 2007 that addressed student characteristics, specialties chosen, clerkship experiences, perceptions of internal medicine (IM) compared with other specialties, and influential aspects of IM. We compared responses from 1990 and 2007 by analyzing a merged data set of identical items from the 2 surveys (65% of the items). RESULTS: The total sample of 2421 students comprised 1244 at 16 schools in 1990 (response rate, 75%) and 1177 at 11 schools in 2007 (82%). In 2007, there were more women (52% vs 37%, P < .001) and more educational debt (mean, $101 000 vs $63 000, P < .001). Similar proportions of students planned IM careers (23% vs 24%), although plans to practice general IM dropped from 9% to 2% (P < .001). The appeal of primary care as an influence toward IM declined from 57% to 33% (P < .001). More 2007 students reported high satisfaction with the IM clerkship (78% vs 38%, P < .001). Both cohorts thought that workload and stress are greater in IM than in other fields. Students in 2007 felt that opportunities for meaningful work in IM were greater than did students in 1990 (58% vs 42%, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: More students in 2007 than in 1990 viewed IM as a potentially meaningful career. However, the 2007 students had higher debt, more negative perceptions of workload and stress in IM, and less career interest in general IM. To rebuild the generalist physician workforce, improving students' experience of IM in medical school is no longer sufficient. Bolder reform will be required to improve the educational pipeline, practice, and payment of generalist IM physicians. |
| | |
Authors:
|
Mark D Schwartz; Steven Durning; Mark Linzer; Karen E Hauer |
Publication Detail:
|
Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't |
Journal Detail:
|
Title: Archives of internal medicine Volume: 171 ISSN: 1538-3679 ISO Abbreviation: Arch. Intern. Med. Publication Date: 2011 Apr |
Date Detail:
|
Created Date: 2011-04-26 Completed Date: 2011-06-20 Revised Date: 2011-12-01 |
Medline Journal Info:
|
Nlm Unique ID: 0372440 Medline TA: Arch Intern Med Country: United States |
Other Details:
|
Languages: eng Pagination: 744-9 Citation Subset: AIM; IM |
Affiliation:
|
Divisions of General Internal Medicine, Departments of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10010, USA. mark.schwartz3@va.gov |
Export Citation:
|
APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
|
Adult Attitude* Career Choice* Confounding Factors (Epidemiology) Female Humans Internal Medicine* / manpower Life Style Male Physicians, Primary Care / economics, statistics & numerical data* Questionnaires Salaries and Fringe Benefits Specialization Stress, Psychological / epidemiology* Students, Medical / statistics & numerical data* United States / epidemiology Workload / psychology Young Adult |
| Comments/Corrections | |
Comment In:
|
Arch Intern Med. 2011 Oct 24;171(19):1772; author reply 1772-3
[PMID:
22025440
]
|
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Previous Document: Risk of heart failure with human immunodeficiency virus in the absence of prior diagnosis of coronar...
Next Document: Tai chi exercise in patients with chronic heart failure: a randomized clinical trial.