A qualitative study on physicians' perceptions of specialty characteristics / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: There has been limited research on physicians’ perceptions of the specialty characteristics that are needed to sustain a successful career in medical specialties in Korea. Medical Specialty Preference Inventory in the United States or SCI59 (specialty choice inventory) in the United Kingdom are implemented to help medical students plan their careers. The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of the major specialties in Korea. METHODS: Twelve physicians from different specialties participated in an exploratory study consisting of qualitative interviews about the personal ability and emotional characteristics and job attributes of each specialty. The collected data were analysed with content analysis methods. RESULTS: Twelve codes were extracted for ability & skill attributes, 23 codes for emotion & attitude attributes, and 12 codes for job attributes. Each specialty shows a different profile in terms of its characteristic attributes. CONCLUSION: The findings have implications for the design of career planning programs for medical students.

Specialty choices of postgraduate medical students: Are they related to the kind of animal identified with oneself.

Background: Research has pointed to a possible role of certain personality attributes in the choice of medical specialties, but not much is known about the Indian setting. Furthermore, most personality assessments are quite lengthy and time-consuming. Objective: The study aimed to explore if the specialty choices of Indian postgraduate students are related to their personality attributes, using a brief projective animal question. Methods: The study was carried out as a retrospective survey (n=450) of responses to a projective question, in which students were asked to name the animal they identified themselves with the most and their reasons. Results: Mean age was 25.46±1.94 years (Males: 71.8% males; females: 28.2%). Reasons for identification with the stated animal were categorized as aggressive 11.8%, autonomous 40%, nurturing 30.4% and aesthetic 17.8%. Technology-oriented specialties were associated with aggressive/ autonomous responses (p<0.01), while pre/paraclinical specialties were associated with nurturing/aesthetic responses (p<0.01). Females had twice the odds (OR: 1.86) of choosing a personoriented clinical specialty over a technology-oriented specialty. Conclusion: Research in this direction is needed to assist the career counseling of medical students.

Student Characteristics That Influence Medical Career Decisions / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: This study was performed to identify medical career decisions choosing a medical specialty. METHODS: Medical career decisions were influenced by a number of factors which may be grouped into three categories: (1) personal, (2) demographic, and (3) environmental. In pre-medical stage, choice of a medical school was mainly decided by interests and aptitude(34.2%). Social class and economic condition that can be obtained after the graduation was second important determining factor(27.6%). In choosing medical specialty, aptitude was predominant determinant(84.5%) and the influence of other factors were weak. Personal value system and perception of self-capacity had no significant influence. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used to measure four dimensions of personality. RESULTS: As a result authors, could find the relationship between the specialty preferences of medical students and interns and their psychological type. The best match was possible for those who favored psychiatry and surgery. Prospective psychiatrists' perception were tempered by intuition which means highly theoretical and reflective orientation. They were also introverted and sensitive. Prospective surgeons were more assertive than students with other specialty choice.

Defense Mechanisms in the Specialty Choice of Medical Students / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: To determine differences of common personality profiles and coping mechanisms of medical students who prefer specific specialties (medicine and surgery), the authors evaluated the defense mechanisms of the medical students by using Ewha Defense Mechanisms Test. METHODS: The authors compared the defense mechanisms between two groups (medicine selection group and surgery selection group) who are in the senior year of the Soonchunhyang University School of Medicine. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in mean scores of the each defense mechanism and 4 groups of defense mechanisms divided by maturity level between the groups of students who selected medicine and surgery. But, frequency of major defense mechanisms were as follows; For the surgery selection group, the passive-aggression in the Immature defense mechanism and show-off in the Neurotic defense mechanism were significantly higher than in the medicine selection group. Contrarily, in the medicine selection group, humor in the mature defense mechanism as the major defense mechanism was significantly higher than in the surgery selection group. CONCLUSION: After analysis of the differences of frequency of major defense mechanisms between the two groups, there were no significant differences between the two groups in personality. However, the students of the medicine selection group used humor of the mature defense mechanism as a major defense mechanism in higher frequency than the surgery selection group. In situations of complications, anxiety and suffering, the use of the humor defense mechanism gave the students strength to endure these situations. Among these students, there is a high probability that many of them possess strong ego strength. Contrarily, the students of the surgery selection group did not express aggression directly, rather, they expressed these feelings indirectly through passive opposition. There was a high frequency of passive-aggression defense mechanism in dealing with feelings of aggression. Also, in the neurotic defense mechanism, compared to ability, excessive goals were set as was the resulting behavior. Especially, behavior was extremely sensitive to how others would evaluate those actions resulting in using show-off mechanism as a major defense mechanism in higher frequency by the surgery selection group. The results seem to be useful in understanding the student's optimal character for specific specialities that were selected by evaluating the differences of the common characteristics and coping mechanisms of each specialty group.