Preference of medical specialties among medical students in a Chilean university

This study describes medical specialty preferences expressed by medical students at a regional university in northern Chile. This descriptive study is based on primary information with a sample of 266 valid responses and a response rate of 58.7%. The information was collected through a Google Forms questionnaire before voluntary consent of participation from May to July 2022. We found that the medical specialties preferred by the Universidad Católica del Norte students were clinical specialties, including internal medicine, and medical-surgical specialties, including emergency medicine and gynecology-obstetrics. Women markedly predominated in child and adolescent psychiatry, gynecology-obstetrics, pediatric surgery, pediatrics, and family medicine, while men predominated in radiology and anesthesiology, both associated with indirect patient interaction. We also found that surgical specialties, traditionally preferred by men, could be in the process of generational change, as there is an increase in the presence of women, especially in general surgery.