Abstract: Medical practice encompasses a diverse spectrum of specialties. Factors that impact selection of clinical disciplines by young physicians may have recently evolved associated with changes in medical school demographics. We assessed whether physicians gravitate to certain practice specialties due to preexisting personality traits. The Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Personality Inventory Revised Test was administered prospectively to 130 first-year students the week before they began medical school. Scores for five traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness) were compared with the selection among nine medical residencies at the conclusion of medical school. Personality scores for medical students selecting psychiatry residencies showed greater degrees of neuroticism (P < 0.01) and openness (P < 0.03). Students electing family practice also deviated from other specialties, showing a lower degree of neuroticism (P < 0.03). Unexpectedly, personality traits in prospective surgical residents did not differ from those of students choosing nonsurgical residencies. Personality profiles present before medical school appear to predict the selection of some residencies and clinical specialties but not others.

Abstract: Students' beliefs and attitudes towards the medical profession have been studied in relation to career choices, but most research has been restricted to either predetermined aspects or to a limited number of specialities. This study aimed at getting unprompted insight in the students' perceptions of their future profession in dimensions that may be determinants of study success and career choice. Undergraduate and graduated medical students were interviewed and asked to characterize the medical profession in general and four contrasting specialities in particular. Grounded Theory methodology was used to analyse the data. Participants were medical students at the start of their training (n = 16), during clerkships (n = 10) and after graduation (n = 37). Beginning students perceive the medical profession in limited dimensions: the activities of a physician, their relationship to patients and the physician's knowledge, skills and personality. They do not see many differences between specialities, in contrast with students with clinical experience and graduate students. Undergraduate students' perception is focussed more on social aspects of the profession compared to graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: As emphasis in medicine has shifted to increasing the number of physicians who choose primary care specialties, many studies of medical specialty choice have been conducted. Although researchers have approached the topic in a number of ways, most approaches have tended to focus on narrow elements of the choice, such as the effect of programs or curricula. A more comprehensive approach is possible by fitting the process to a preexisting broad theoretical framework. Summary: This synthesis of the literature examines specialty choice from the perspective of decision theory--with its aims of understanding how decisions are made, providing information about the quality of decisions, and improving the decision-making process. Conclusion: This approach has the potential to not only help deconstruct the process of decision making regarding specialty choice but also uncover information about the best ways to help medical students learn to make wise decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This review examines the literature on personality and medical specialty choice. First, it describes studies categorized by medical specialties that to date have used the same measures: Adjective Check List, California Psychological Inventory, Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Then it integrates these results using the framework provided by the Five-Factor Model of personality. This model provides a method to organize the personality descriptors associated with medical specialties and to summarize information in an understandable and meaningful way. Conclusions drawn from the review suggest a loose association between a few personality factors and particular medical specialties. Recommendations for further research on personality and medical specialties encourage shifting from the "variable" to the "person" approach and studying how different personalities succeed in the same specialty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]