Choosing a medical specialty – Study of Finnish doctors graduating in 1977–2006

Figures & data

Table

Practice points

Diversity of work is the main factor affecting choices of specialty Especially younger physicians follow the example set by more experienced colleagues when choosing a specialty Attitudes towards on-call load seem to divide physicians to some degree

Table 1.  Choices of specialty groups (%) of Finnish male and female doctors graduating in 1977–2006

	Males n = 1129	Females n = 2187	Total n = 3316
Operative specialties^a	30.8	23.7	26.1
Conservative specialties^b	28.1	27.7	27.8
Diagnostic specialties^c	9.5	6.6	7.6
Psychiatric specialties^d	9.6	13.8	12.4
General practice^e	22.1	28.2	26.1

Notes: ^aAnaesthesiology and intensive care medicine, cardiothoracic surgery, gastroenterological surgery, general surgery, hand surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthopaedics and traumatology, otorhinolaryngology, paediatric surgery, plastic surgery, urology and vascular surgery.

^bCardiology, child neurology, clinical haematology, clinical pharmacology and pharmacotherapy, dermatology and allergology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, geriatrics, infectious diseases, internal medicine, nephrology, neurology, oncology, paediatrics, phoniatrics, physical and rehabilitation medicine, public health, respiratory medicine and allergology, rheumatology and sports medicine.

^cClinical chemistry, clinical genetics, clinical microbiology, clinical neurophysiology, clinical physiology and nuclear medicine, forensic medicine, pathology and radiology.

^dAdolescent psychiatry, child psychiatry, forensic psychiatry and psychiatry.

^eGeneral practice and occupational health.

Table 2.  Choices of specialty groups (%) of Finnish doctors graduating in 1977–2006 in different age groups

	Under 35 n = 526	35–44 n = 1081	45–54 n = 1257	55 and older n = 422
Operative specialties	33.1	25.6	24.7	23.0
Conservative specialties	30.8	31.0	25.5	23.5
Diagnostic specialties	7.8	7.1	7.5	8.5
Psychiatric specialties	5.3	11.2	14.0	18.2
General practice	23.0	25.1	28.3	26.8

Table 3.  Proportions (%) of Finnish male and female doctors, and differences in proportions (% units) of male and female doctors graduating in 1977–2006 who answered ‘Considerably’ or ‘Very much’ to the question ‘If you are a specialist or specializing, to what extent did the following items affect your choice of specialty?’ in 2008, and statistical significance of the differences (p)

	Genders				Total
	Males n = 1184–1198	Females n = 2229–2258	Difference	p	n = 3413–3455
Opportunities for career development	32.9	21.3	11.6	<0.001	25.4
Opportunity to gain good income	34.2	26.9	7.3	<0.001	29.4
Opportunity to carry out research	22.3	15.4	6.9	<0.001	17.8
Positive experiences in the specialty during my undergraduate training	48.0	42.9	5.1	0.004	44.7
Good example set by colleagues in the specialty	45.0	40.7	4.3	0.014	42.2
Opportunities to work in the private sector	29.8	25.6	4.2	0.007	27.0
Good prospects of employment	49.3	46.0	3.3	0.066	47.1
High-quality specialization programme	15.4	14.0	1.4	0.276	14.5
By chance	28.1	29.5	−1.4	0.408	29.0
Diversity of work	74.9	76.5	−1.6	0.278	76.0
Reasonable on-call load	31.8	42.0	−10.2	<0.001	38.4

Note: The items are sorted according to the differences between genders.

Table 4.  Proportions (%) of Finnish doctors graduating in 1977–2006 in different age groups who answered ‘Considerably’ or ‘Very much’ to the question ‘If you are a specialist or specializing, to what extent did the following items affect your choice of specialty?’ in 2008 (n = 3372–3411), and statistical significance of the differences (p)

	Under 35 n = 536–542	35–44 n = 1104– 1114	45–54 n = 1299– 1317	Over 54 n = 433–442	p
Diversity of work	83.9	74.6	74.5	74.3	<0.001
Positive experiences in the specialty during my undergraduate training	52.4	43.2	43.0	44.2	0.001
Good prospects of employment	52.1	46.2	46.0	47.5	0.090
Good example set by colleagues in the specialty	48.4	44.7	39.0	37.4	<0.001
Reasonable on-call load	43.4	41.8	35.4	32.7	<0.001
Opportunities for career development	39.0	22.9	22.4	25.1	<0.001
Opportunity to gain good income	33.4	29.1	28.7	29.8	0.226
Opportunities to work in the private sector	33.2	26.5	25.2	27.9	0.005
High-quality specialization programme	21.3	14.7	11.6	13.6	<0.001
By chance	19.6	29.3	33.0	26.1	<0.001
Opportunity to carry out research	19.0	18.0	16.7	17.8	0.642

Note: The items are sorted according the answers of the youngest age group.

Figure 1. Proportions (%) of Finnish doctors graduating in 1977–2006 in different specialty groups who answered ‘Considerably’ or ‘Very much’ to the question ‘If you are a specialist or specializing, to what extent did the following items affect your choice of specialty?’ in 2008 (n = 3253–3292). The six most frequently chosen items.