Students make choices for other reasons, such as proximity to where they would like to live and health policy changes (Five Periods of Health Policy and Physician Career Choice)
By Ben Klayman
CHICAGO (Reuters) - An increasing number of medical students are picking
their specialty based on the lifestyle it permits, including more time to
spend with family, rather than such traditional factors as pay and prestige,
according to a study published in the September 3 issue of the Journal of
the American Medical Association. (no study has demonstrated generational
impacts or anything other than surveys which all have their flaws and
assumptions)
"We're being told essentially that it's not the number of hours or the
intensity of the work, it's the ability at the end of the day to close out
the work day and go home and be away from professional responsibilities,"
Dr. Gregory Rutecki, one of the study's authors, said. (perhaps
they should have considered a different career, about 60% of physician
assistants do not have call, see
Primary Care Retention)
"The trend may also represent the increasing number of women in the
profession," who seek a closer balance between family and professional
duties, Dr. Rutecki said. (making assumptions about women who are heavily
recruited for outstanding qualities such as service orientation and ability to
relate to most who seek health care is much more complex, all physicians are
working less and different, not just women)
The finding points to potential shortages of doctors in specialties such as
family practice, surgery, and obstetrics, as medical students shun fields
where they are required to be on-call during many off hours, the report
said. (Family medicine is neutral and about 3 different types of careers and
choice is influenced by the support of health policy see
Five Periods of Health Policy
and Physician Career Choice)
"We're going to have person-power shortages in the next 10 years in critical
areas. Where are the primary care doctors going to come from?" said Dr.
Rutecki, a professor at Northwestern University. (true)
The report said previous studies have also detected the trend, with students
more inclined to select specialties with fewer work hours per week and fewer
nights on-call. (The same studies if using a different time span would have
different results, say covering the period from 1989 graduates to 1996
graduates, when the primary care careers would have been peaking and lifestyle
would not have explained the choices.)
For some indepth - Physician Workforce Studies