Journal of medical education
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The study reported here focused on the influence of medical students' learning styles (that is, how they prefer to receive and use information in learning and problem-solving situations) on (a) their choice of a medical career type and (b) their sources of information and influence in making that choice. The results suggest that those students with learning styles that are associated with primary care careers are also those who are dissatisfied with a traditional basic science curriculum and are influenced more than the average student by concrete work experiences, as well as identification with role models, in making a career decision. Among the implications of these results for medical school admissions, curricula, and faculty is the possibility that more students might consider primary care careers if more primary care experiences and role models were available in medical school.
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Factor analysis of medical student ratings of basic science instruction yielded three dimensions of student perception of instruction: faculty-student rapport, outside work, and aspects of student comprehension. While these factors are similar to those identified in other studies, they differ in respects probably reflecting differences between medical students and other students and differences in questionnaire design.
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In 1970 approximately 81 percent of the nation's physicians were in specialty practice, and by 1990 this figure is projected to rise to 94 percent. A phenomenon of this magnitude clearly warrants intensive study. ⋯ For example, family and internal medicine were rated high by all four groups, whereas neurological and colon-rectal surgery were rated low; Males, and particularly male physicians, gave significantly higher ratings to surgical specialties, whereas females expressed stronger preferences for obstetrics and gynecology. Students gave lower ratings than physicians to surgical and eye, ear, nose, and throat specialties.