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Career orientations of medical students: A Q-methodology study

INTRODUCTION: In pursuing optimal health care, an adequate medical workforce is crucial. However, many countries are struggling with a misalignment of students’ specialty preferences and societal needs regarding the future medical workforce. In order to bridge this gap, it is relevant to gain a bett...

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Autores principales: Gennissen, Lokke, Stegers-Jager, Karen, van Exel, Job, Fluit, Lia, de Graaf, Jacqueline, de Hoog, Matthijs
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8139450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34019546
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249092
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author Gennissen, Lokke
Stegers-Jager, Karen
van Exel, Job
Fluit, Lia
de Graaf, Jacqueline
de Hoog, Matthijs
author_facet Gennissen, Lokke
Stegers-Jager, Karen
van Exel, Job
Fluit, Lia
de Graaf, Jacqueline
de Hoog, Matthijs
author_sort Gennissen, Lokke
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: In pursuing optimal health care, an adequate medical workforce is crucial. However, many countries are struggling with a misalignment of students’ specialty preferences and societal needs regarding the future medical workforce. In order to bridge this gap, it is relevant to gain a better understanding of the medical career choice processes. We explored career orientations among medical students in the Netherlands and their implications for future career choices. METHODS: We used Q-methodology, a hybrid qualitative–quantitative method, to explore career orientations of medical students. Medical students from two universities in the Netherlands, varying in year of progression of medical school, ranked 62 statements with regard to importance for their future career choice. Participants explained their ranking in an interview and completed a questionnaire regarding demographics. Using by-person factor analysis we identified groups of individuals with similar orientations. RESULTS: Twenty-four students participated in this study, resulting in three distinct orientations towards future careers: a first career orientation that highly values lifelong self-development; a second that values work-life balance, and a third that was more concerned with achievement and recognition of their work. CONCLUSION: Medical students’ career orientations differed in the importance of challenge, work-life balance, and need for recognition. This knowledge can help to design interventions to shift career choices of medical students closer towards future needs in society. Offering career coaching to students that challenges them to explore and prioritise their values, needs and motivations, for example using the materials form this study as a tool, and stimulates them to consider specialties accordingly, could be a promising strategy for guiding students to more long-term satisfying careers.
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spelling pubmed-81394502021-06-02 Career orientations of medical students: A Q-methodology study Gennissen, Lokke Stegers-Jager, Karen van Exel, Job Fluit, Lia de Graaf, Jacqueline de Hoog, Matthijs PLoS One Research Article INTRODUCTION: In pursuing optimal health care, an adequate medical workforce is crucial. However, many countries are struggling with a misalignment of students’ specialty preferences and societal needs regarding the future medical workforce. In order to bridge this gap, it is relevant to gain a better understanding of the medical career choice processes. We explored career orientations among medical students in the Netherlands and their implications for future career choices. METHODS: We used Q-methodology, a hybrid qualitative–quantitative method, to explore career orientations of medical students. Medical students from two universities in the Netherlands, varying in year of progression of medical school, ranked 62 statements with regard to importance for their future career choice. Participants explained their ranking in an interview and completed a questionnaire regarding demographics. Using by-person factor analysis we identified groups of individuals with similar orientations. RESULTS: Twenty-four students participated in this study, resulting in three distinct orientations towards future careers: a first career orientation that highly values lifelong self-development; a second that values work-life balance, and a third that was more concerned with achievement and recognition of their work. CONCLUSION: Medical students’ career orientations differed in the importance of challenge, work-life balance, and need for recognition. This knowledge can help to design interventions to shift career choices of medical students closer towards future needs in society. Offering career coaching to students that challenges them to explore and prioritise their values, needs and motivations, for example using the materials form this study as a tool, and stimulates them to consider specialties accordingly, could be a promising strategy for guiding students to more long-term satisfying careers. Public Library of Science 2021-05-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8139450/ /pubmed/34019546 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249092 Text en © 2021 Gennissen et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Gennissen, Lokke
Stegers-Jager, Karen
van Exel, Job
Fluit, Lia
de Graaf, Jacqueline
de Hoog, Matthijs
Career orientations of medical students: A Q-methodology study
title Career orientations of medical students: A Q-methodology study
title_full Career orientations of medical students: A Q-methodology study
title_fullStr Career orientations of medical students: A Q-methodology study
title_full_unstemmed Career orientations of medical students: A Q-methodology study
title_short Career orientations of medical students: A Q-methodology study
title_sort career orientations of medical students: a q-methodology study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8139450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34019546
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249092
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