Comparing physicians' specialty interests upon entering medical school with their eventual practice specialties

The stability of specialty choices of 519 graduates of the University of Washington School of Medicine were studied by means of a mail survey in 1986. The graduates' actual practice specialties were compared with the one or more specialties each had indicated as possible career specialty choices when they entered medical school. Nearly 70% of the graduates' early choices remained stable, double the percentage found by other studies that based stability on an entering medical student's single choice of a career specialty. The findings suggest that students entering medical school have in mind a variety of acceptable specialties and later are likely to choose one of these as a career.