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Effect of generalist preceptor specialty in a third-year clerkship on career choice
John D Gazewood1, John Owen, Lisa K Rollins
1University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA. jdg3k@virginia.edu
Background And Objectives:
An association exists between student participation in a family medicine clerkship and student selection of family practice as a career. The effect of student exposure to other generalist specialties on career choice is unknown. This study determined if the specialty of an assigned generalist preceptor during a third-year ambulatory clerkship affected medical students' choice of a generalist career.
Methods:
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 464 medical students who were randomly assigned to either a family physician or a general internist for a 4-week, third-year ambulatory clerkship.
Results:
There was no significant relationship between preceptor assignment and students' generalist career choice. Students assigned to general internal medicine preceptors were not more likely to choose careers in general internal medicine, nor were students assigned to family medicine preceptors more likely to select careers in family practice.
Conclusions:
Previous studies have suggested that generalist experiences during medical school can influence students' career preference. This study, however, indicates that the type of generalist experience received during the third year did not affect students' choice of a generalist career, nor did it influence their career choice between the generalist specialties.