BACKGROUND Medical students develop interest in a specialty career during medical school based on knowledge and clinical experience of different specialties. How valid this knowledge is and how this knowledge relates to the development of preference for a specialty is not known. We studied their "subjective" knowledge of a specialty (students' reported knowledge) with "objective" knowledge of i...

This paper contributes to a growing body of research that finds a surprising degree of structure in the exchange networks that comprise a market. Standard neoclassical theory depicts the market as fluid system with little repeated exchange between pairs of agents. And while economists have recently begun to pay greater attention to more restricted networks of exchange, such networks are typical...

This multinational survey investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and perceived stress (PS) in seven countries. First-year dental undergraduates attending a dental school in England, Greece, Romania, South Africa, Australia, and the United States and three schools in Malaysia were invited to complete a set of questionnaires on age, gender, academic background, satisfac...

Objective: There are several theories proposed on the career development and researchers have classified these theories in different categories. Career-related cognitive theory is one of the latest categories including two theories: social cognitive theory of career development and cognitive information processing. The current study seeks to compare these two cognitive theories of career develo...

A conceptual look at the distinction between expressed and measured interests is undertaken. Instead of denoting two different aspects of “vocational interests,” expressed and measured interests refer to distinct psychological constructs. Expressed interests are specific intentions and measured interests are what people conventionally mean by “vocational interests.” Using research on how intent...

Interest in nephrology as a career choice for physicians in the United States continues to decline, particularly among US medical graduates. Reasons for this are multi-factorial and include nephrology being perceived as difficult, arduous and un-inspiring with poor career prospects. This short paper discusses some aspects of Nephrology that need to be adjusted to attract bright enthusiastic phy...

Reforms to postgraduate training in the U.K. may affect recruitment to geriatric medicine. In 2005, a questionnaire survey was undertaken to determine the factors favouring geriatric medicine as a career choice and whether these might be used to influence recruitment. In all, 1036 responses to the questionnaire were received (response rate 56.4%); 4% of the respondents decided to specialise in ...

We develop a simple methodology to estimate the returns to education despite heterogeneous labor/leisure preferences. The labor supply behavior of doctors and physician assistants is consistent with people choosing between the two careers based on differing tastes for leisure. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Throughout time, plentiful narratives have originated on individuals achieving astonishing things after receiving a ‘calling’ to a certain vocation. Examples range from the biblical calling of Moses in the desert to liberate the people of Israel from their oppression and slavery in Egypt [1] to Frodo Baggins being called to the quest aimed at destroying the ring of Sauron [2]. More recently and...