Motivation underlying career choice for internal medicine and surgery

Self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 1985) was used to predict medical students' career choices for internal medicine or surgery based on their experiences of the autonomy support provided by the instructors in the two corresponding third-year clerkships. Fourth-year medical students (n = 210) at three medical schools completed questionnaires that assessed (1) retrospective prior likelihood (as of the end of second year) of their going into internal medicine and surgery, (2) their perceived competence with respect to these two medical specialties, (3) their interest in the problems treated in each specialty, (4) the autonomy support of the instructors on the two corresponding rotations, (5) the current likelihood (late in the fourth year) of going into each of the two specialties, and (6) their actual residency choices. For a subset (n = 64), actual prior likelihoods of going into the two careers had also been assessed at the end of their second year. Structural equation modeling confirmed, as hypothesized, (a) that perceived autonomy support of the corresponding clerkship would predict students' choices of internal medicine or surgery, even after the effects of retrospective (and actual) prior likelihood had been removed, and (b) that this relationship between perceived autonomy support and career choice was mediated by perceived competence and interest. The present study suggests that students' experiences on clerkships do affect the likelihood that they will select particular specialties, and that students' interest in the areas are good indicators of the selections they will make.