If you are a junior doctor in your second foundation year, you will be approaching the point where you have to make a major career decision - choosing your specialty training. Foundation year programmes give junior doctors the opportunity to experience a broad variety of specialties during their rotations. If, however, a specialty doesn’t feature on the foundation programme then there are limited opportunities for a trial before applying for a specialty. Colleges and Societies can offer guidance through various events and careers fairs – such as the RSM’s annual Specialty Careers Fair – which aim to provide all the information doctors need to make this most important of decisions. Yet studies have also shown that there are a number of external factors which influence doctors’ choices of future specialty, you can try this quiz to check the suitable specialty for your personality. A recent research paper in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRSM) conducted by the UK medical careers Research Group, University of Oxford, found that junior doctors rank commitment and domestic circumstances as a deciding factor when choosing their chosen specialty and that the reasons for choosing a particular medical specialty vary according to the intended specialty. A total of 15,765 UK-trained doctors who graduated between 1999 and 2012 took part in the research, with comparisons made between doctors who qualified in 2008-2012 with those who qualified in 1992-2002. Researchers compared five career choice specialty groups – general practice hospital medicine specialties, surgical specialties, psychiatry and other hospital specialties combined. The results showed that: Enthusiasm for and commitment to the specialty was a greater influence on career choice for doctors who qualified between 2008-2012 (81%) than those of 1999-2002 (64%), as was consideration of their domestic circumstances (43% in 2012 compared with 20% in 2002). Only 16% of recent cohorts thought that the prospects for promotion was less important compared to 21% for the older cohorts. Financial prospects were more important for the older generation (14%) compared to those who graduated in 2012 (10%). Women considered domestic circumstances and working hours more important, and financial prospects less important, than men. Working hours and conditions, and their own domestic circumstances, were more important to intending GPs and psychiatrists than to doctors wanting to practise in other specialties. Those who were leaning towards general practice chose it for its variety, continuity of care and work life balance. Availability of training places and career posts was more important to those in the 2012 cohort than to doctors who graduated in 2008. Commenting on the research, Dr Kamran Abbasi, Editor of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, said: “This paper indicates a clear distinction between the motives for choice of specialty among today’s young doctors compared with their older colleagues. Concern over working hours and conditions is of particular relevance in the light of the current controversial changes to the junior doctors contract.” Source
