醫學生的專科偏好與相關因素探討

Those who choose medicine as a career generallymake their decisions and make their professionalidentities earlier than do students from otherdisciplines.However,they still must confront theproblem of choosing from among many specialtiesand subspecialty alternatives,types of medical practice,and location of practice.According to the resultsof previous research,the percentage of medicalstudents who change their career plan during medicalschool is relatively high.Therefore,the purposeof this study was to thoroughly understand medicalstudents' preference of specialty and to investigatethe determinant and influences of related factors onspecialty preference by medical students.Thy results of surveying 523 medical studentswho were fourth- to seventh-year-students in medicalcollege at National Taiwan University college ofmedicine,show that most medical students were interestedin internal medicine,surgery,and pediatrics.Students' interests and personalities were the majordeterminants.The results of analyzing students' knowledgeabout all specialties,indicate that most students werefamiliar with the level of patient contact,the workload,working times,and physician's income for suchdifferent specialties as internal medicine,surgery,pediatrics,and gynecology-obstetrics.Also,the levelof understanding of a specialty was related to thepreference of students.In addition,the results of preference of practicinglocation showed that most students preferred tostay in the Taipei area,while their hometowns werethe second choices.No student wanted to leave theisland to practice medicine.Furthermore,regardingvarious medical institutions,it was found that medicalcenters were the most popular institution inwhich students expected to be located in the future.This study also suggests that more related research is needed in the future.In particular,longitudinalstudies of medical students' career developmentare highly recommended.