Specialty Preferences in the First 3 Years in Medical School Translate Into Their Final Choice for Postgraduation: A Longitudinal Study
S. S. PrakashAbstract
Background:
Our aim was to explore how specialty preferences of medical students at various stages of their undergraduate training period match with their final choice for postgraduation.
Methods:
One batch of medical students was followed from the 1 st year until they joined postgraduate degree. We collected data on demographic information, their first, second, third preferences for a specialty and three least likely preferences at each phase of the undergraduate course using our previously published questionnaire.
Results:
Out of the 100 eligible students in the batch, 18 refused to participate or withdrew from the study. Complete data on specialty preferences were available for 60 participants. A total of 37 students from the batch joined our institution for postgraduation in various specialties, of which we had data of 36 students of their specialty preferences in their initial years of undergraduate training. We found that half (18 out of 36) of these students chose their specialty for postgraduation which was indicated as their first, second, or third preferences on at least one of the three time points. While 14 students chose a specialty that did not feature in either their most or least likely preferences in any of the time points, for 4 students, the final choice for the postgraduate degree featured in their list of least likely preferences on at least one occasion.
Conclusion:
We found that the final choice for their postgraduation correlated with their preference in the first 3 years of their undergraduate training course in half of the students.