Role Models' Influence on Specialty Choice for Residency Training: A National Longitudinal Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background  Role models in medical school may influence students' residency specialty choice. Objective  We examined whether medical students who reported clinical exposure to a role model during medical school would have an increased likelihood of selecting the role model's specialty for their residencies. Methods  We conducted a 5-year prospective, national longitudinal study (2011–2016) of medical students from 24 US allopathic medical schools, starting from the middle of their third year. The primary outcome measure was type of residency specialty choice 4 years after graduation. Main predictors were the clinical specialty of a student's most admired physician and the relative importance of 7 potentially influential factors for specialty choice in the fourth year of medical school. Results  From 919 eligible participants, 564 (61%) responded to the first survey; 474 of the respondents (84%) completed the follow-up survey. We excluded 29 participants who were not in their fourth year by the time of the follow-up survey. Of the follow-up respondents, 427 (96%) had specialty data 4 years after graduation. In our multivariate models, exposure to an admired generalist physician prior to medical school (odds ratio [OR] = 2.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03–4.73) and during medical school (OR = 2.62, 95% CI 1.69–4.05) had the strongest odds with respect to training in a generalist residency 4 years after graduation. Role model exposure also predicted specialty choice among those training in surgical and radiology, ophthalmology, anesthesiology, and dermatology (ROAD) specialties. Conclusions  Personal exposure to role models in medical school is an important predictor of residency training in that role model's specialty.