Female medical students' interest in radiology careers

Women are underrepresented in radiology. The aim of this study was to measure first-year medical students' level of interest in radiology and their attitudes toward factors that could affect residency specialty choices to further understand how to recruit women into radiology careers.

First-year medical students were administered surveys before and after a 7-week required introductory radiology course. Students rated interest in radiology on a scale ranging from 0 to 10 (low to high). Ten factors that could affect residency choice ("competitive residency," "shorter residency," "role models," "more jobs," "above average income," "flexible work hours," "work is technological," "work is visual," "intellectual challenge," and "more patient contact") were each rated as negative, neutral, or positive. Correlations between level of interest in radiology and the 10 factors were analyzed using Spearman's coefficients.

The mean levels of interest in radiology were 4.5 for men and 4.0 for women (P = .38) among 116 precourse respondents and 5.2 for men and 4.3 for women (P = .11) among 80 postcourse respondents. The factors most frequently rated as having a positive impact on residency choice were "flexible work hours," "intellectual challenge," "role models," and "more patient contact." Compared with men, women less frequently rated "work is technological" (20% vs 43%; P = .0002) and "work is visual" (50% vs 72%; P = .03) as having a positive impact and more frequently rated "more patient contact" (89% vs 77%; P = .02) as having a positive impact. For women, the strongest correlation between level of interest in radiology and the 10 factors was for "role models" (correlation coefficient = .30, P = .03).

Interest in radiology did not differ by gender. Opportunities in radiology for flexible hours, intellectual challenge, patient care, and mentoring should be promoted early in medical education to female students to maintain and increase their interest in radiology.