Relationship of Cognitive and Noncognitive Factors of Prematriculation and Undergraduate Medical Education and Medical Student Specialty/residency Selection

196 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984.The selection of medical specialty/residency programs by medical students is both an important and critical decision, since the choice defines typically a life long career path for each student, and in part, the medical services delivered to society. The current investigation attempted to identify some of the cognitive and noncognitive factors that occur before and during undergraduate medical education and that appear to account for, in part, the selection of a medical specialty.The study was conducted because of the: (a) important implications medical specialty choice has for the delivery of health care, (b) dated nature of the knowledge of factors affecting specialty selection, (c) need to broaden the examination of factors thought to impact specialty selection, and (d) desirability of using a different statistical methodology to allow for the development of a multifaceted perspective of the variety of factors affecting specialty choice.A retrospective approach was used to study specialty selection among graduates of the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Students (535) who received a doctorate of medicine degree in 1979, 1980, and 1981 and who selected residencies in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Family Practice, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Psychiatry, Survey, and Anesthesiology-Pathology-Radiology were included in the investigation. Cognitive and noncognitive data were assembled for archival data and responses to a mail survey. Several analytic techniques were used; the analyses included both univariate and multivariate procedures. As appropriate, chi-square analyses, one-way analyses of variance, and multiple discriminant analyses were performed.It was noted that residency selection, for specific specialty groups, could be predicted at different points of time. Students who demonstrated the lowest levels of prematriculation achievement were those in Obstetrics/Gynecology and Pediatrics; highest were Psychiatry and Anesthesiology-Pathology-Radiology. Highest levels of achievement during medical school were demonstrated by Internists and Surgeons; lowest for Obstectrics/Gynecology and Family Practice. Further, specific patterns of noncognitive characteristics for each specialty group were found. Recommendations for practice and future research were made; implications for current admissions procedures were addressed.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD