[Specialty preferences among final-year medical students at Zagreb University Medical School]

The aim of this study was to investigate the sixth-year medical students' specialty preferences, at the Zagreb University Medical School. A total of 603 students were recruited during a three-year period (2003-2005), with a response rate of 83.3%. One third had a preferred specialty upon enrolment at the Medical School. Three most desirable specialties few months prior to graduation were internal medicine (12.6%), paediatrics (10.2%), and surgery (8.7%), while one fourth of students (24.4%) reported one of the controllable life-style specialties as their specialty choice. Students who were interested in internal medicine reported the best academic performance, while those who were interested in the family medicine (general practice) reported the poorest academic performance. The study indicates that family medicine, anaesthesiology, and radiology were the least commonly reported as specialties of the students' choice, compared to percentage of specialists employed in Croatian health care service. The most wanted specialties were ear-nose-throat and orthopaedics.