Senior students' evaluations of the usefulness of the Glaxo Pathway Evaluation Program

To examine the influence of the Glaxo Pathway Evaluation Program on fourth-year medical students' specialty-choice decisions.

In February 1992, 274 seniors at three medical schools were asked to complete a 19-item questionnaire regarding their evaluations of the usefulness of the Pathway program in helping them to make their specialty-choice decisions.

A total of 237 seniors responded to the survey (though not all responded to all 19 items), indicating that they found the program to be moderately useful. More than half of the students (107 of 207, 51.7%) reported that they had followed the program's decision-making model and found it moderately useful. The students' responses indicated that those components intended to facilitate self-assessment and provide information about the various specialty options were fairly well utilized, i.e., 59.9% of the students had reevaluated the Critical Factors, and 73.6% had compared their individual profiles with the Specialty Profiles, finding both exercises moderately useful. Other follow-up activities had been used variably.

The students evaluated the program as being moderately useful. The authors conclude that the program is a useful, comprehensive, and reasonably objective tool. Whether students using the program achieve long-term commitment to and satisfaction in their chosen specialties remains to be determined.