Some specialties have always been very competitive. Careers advice for medical students and junior doctors is often patchy. The Medical Schools Council reported ‘an urgent need’ for medical schools to provide more comprehensive information regarding careers. Competition ratios have been published, but these were only to be found in obscure human resources publications until Shelley Heard’s rece...

BACKGROUND In Finland the number of medical specialists varies between specialties and regions. More regulation of the post-graduate medical training is planned. Therefore, it is important to clarify what predicts doctors' satisfaction with their chosen specialty. METHODS A random sample contained 50% of all Finnish doctors under 70 years of age. The respose rate was 50.5%. Working-age specia...

BACKGROUND Choosing a medical specialty is a poorly understood process. Although studies conducted around the world have attempted to identify the factors that affect medical students' choice of specialty, data is scarce on the factors that influence the choice of specialty of Saudi Arabian medical students, in particular those planning a career in emergency medicine (EM). In this study, we inv...

CONTEXT Certification by an American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) member board is emerging as a measure of physician quality. OBJECTIVE To identify demographic and educational factors associated with ABMS member board certification of US medical school graduates. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Retrospective study of a national cohort of 1997-2000 US medical school graduates, group...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to explore the hypothesis that negative comments from faculty and residents about family practice are related to the recent decline in student selection of this specialty. METHODS A questionnaire was sent to all family physicians and an equal number of other primary care physicians who graduated from one of 24 medical schools in 1997-1999. Tw...

BACKGROUND Since 2011, specialty hospitals in South Korea have been known for providing high- quality care in specific clinical areas. Much research related to specialty hospitals and their performance in many such areas has been performed, but investigations about their performance in obstetrics and gynecology are lacking. Thus, we aimed to compare specialty vs. non-specialty hospitals with re...

AIM To explore involvement in scientific research, choice of specialty, and readiness to emigrate among graduating medical students in Croatia. METHODS A total of 312 out of 408 (76%) final year medical students of all Croatian Medical Schools (Zagreb, Rijeka, Osijek, and Split) graduating in 2004 answered a questionnaire designed for this study, including questions on scientific involvement,...