Frequency and effect of negative comments ("badmouthing") on medical students' career choices

Some call it "medical bigotry," and others describe it as the "hidden curriculum," but, by any name, the superficial and demeaning comments that students hear about particular career choices are thought to play a major role in discouraging the selection of primary care careers. This paper explores the frequency and effect of "badmouthing" on career choice with the hypothesis that it is more frequently heard about primary care disciplines but has relatively little influence on actual career choice.

In 1993, 129 (79%) of the 163 University of Washington School of Medicine graduates responded to a two-page questionnaire about badmouthing. This information was used to refine the questionnaire. In 1994, 1,447 graduating students from nine medical schools were surveyed with the revised questionnaire. The schools were chosen to represent schools that had high, medium, and low proportions of students going into primary care careers.

A total of 1,114 questionnaires were returned, for a response rate of 77%. Badmouthing was heard frequently (76% of the responding students) and often occurred as early as the first and second years of medical school. The students heard badmouthing about their career choices most frequently when they selected surgery (91%) and family medicine (87%) and least frequently when they chose pediatrics (57%), p < .001. The students reported that the influence on career choice was low in general, but 186 students (17% of all respondents) did report altering their choices based on badmouthing.

Primary care fields and non-primary care fields were equally affected by career changes due to badmouthing. This study indicates that badmouthing, while pervasive across all disciplines and an unattractive aspect of the educational experience, cannot alone account for the low proportion of graduates choosing primary care careers.