Gender Differences in Career Choice Influences

The factors that lead medical students to choose a particular career specialty are complex and poorly understood (Newton, Grayson, & Thompson, 2005). In the past fifteen years, the percentage of medical students choosing primary care careers (e.g. family practice, general internal medicine) has declined sharply, while the percentage of students entering careers such as plastic surgery and emergency medicine has increased dramatically (Newton et al., 2005). Psychiatry and anesthesiology, on the other hand, have fluctuated from year to year (Newton & Grayson, 2003). Many medical professionals believe that unless the decline in students choosing primary care is addressed, the United States will face a shortage of primary care physicians that could be crippling (Schwartz, Basco, Grey, Elmore, & Rubenstein, 2005). For this reason, it is of interest to understand the factors that lead students to select one specialty over another. Past research has shown that women are more likely than men to choose primary care over other specialties such as anesthesiology (Bland, Meurer, & Maldonado, 1995). This may be a function of gender differences in the values that influence students’ career choices. One such value involves the desire to give comprehensive care for one’s patients. Comprehensive care entails providing treatment that encompasses psychological and social aspects of patient well-being in addition to biological aspects. Physicians who provide comprehensive patient care are often involved in providing social support to family members, education regarding lifestyle choices, or providing care over a patient’s lifespan. As a result, this type of care can be viewed as more relationship-focused than treatment-focused. Some specialties, including general primary care, are relatively conducive to this type of care, while others, such as urology, are not. Men’s and women’s career values are often assessed by asking them to rate the importance they place on various career attributes when choosing a specialty (e.g., Newton et al., 2004). Prior to comparing men’s and women’s career values, it is important to demonstrate that the survey items used to measure these values function similarly across the two gender groups (Meredith, 1993). In this vein, the goal of the present study is to examine whether men and women differ in how they view and rate survey items designed to assess the importance medical students place on comprehensive patient care when selecting a career.