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Background: Students' selection of a specialty is an important decision in their career as a physician. While distinguishing primary care physicians from non-primary care specialists has served a purpose for how medicine is practiced and managed, considering alternative ways of grouping specialties is appropriate when exploring specialty decisions. Purpose: This study explored how early specialty preferences correspond to eventual specialty choice using the person-oriented versus technique-oriented taxonomy. Method: Participants were 349 students who completed a career plan survey during the first semester of medical school and later graduated. Results: Chi-square analysis showed a statistically significant difference between students' early preference for a person-oriented or technique-oriented specialty and the specialty they chose for their residency. Conclusion: Students with an early preference for person-oriented specialties were more likely to choose a person-oriented specialty, whereas students with an early preference for technique-oriented specialties were less likely to enter a technique-oriented specialty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Like all medical schools. Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM) has an elaborate committee system for academic review and promotions (ARP). Little research exists locally or nationally on this system. Purpose: E-mail invitations to all 420 NEOUCOM currently enrolled students were sent seeking their participation in a qualitative study that involved interviewing students who had appeared before an ARP committee at any time for any reason to understand how they experienced the process. Method: NUD*IST software was used to analyze the data generated by the interviews. Results: The invitation drew 19 volunteers from the pool of 84 students who, at the time of the messages, had appeared before an ARP committee at least once. Themes were discovered surrounding students' perceptions of the committee's purpose, their experience of it, their beliefs about students' honesty when appearing before the committee, how they felt about themselves after a committee appearance, and how they would improve the process of academic review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Given changing trends in specialty choices among medical students coupled with continued challenges associated with medical specialty decision-making, it is important for medical educators to understand how students make decisions about their medical career. Medical educators should be aware of how medical school-based experiences and interactions such as faculty, courses, and services impact students’ specialty choices and decisions. Aim: The study determined if differences in influences on specialty decision-making exist for students entering person-oriented specialties versus technique-oriented specialties. Methods: Three hundred and fifty-six fourth-year medical students completed a questionnaire about how the faculty, curriculum, student services, mentoring and professional development programs, lifestyle considerations, family/friends, and other factors influenced their choice of specialty. Results: Chi-square analyses indicated that students pursuing person-oriented specialties compared to technique-oriented specialties were moderately more likely to be influenced by their personal physician, by school faculty, and by medical school activities; slightly more likely to be influenced by medical school offices and services; and slightly less likely to be influenced by income expectations. Conclusions: Students interested in person-oriented specialties versus technique-oriented specialties indicate differences in what influences their specialty choice. This study may be helpful to medical educators and advisors who work with students on specialty decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]