Abstract
With the US health care system facing a primary care physician shortage, we evaluated whether medical students who saw medicine as a calling were more likely to enter a family medicine, internal medicine, or pediatrics residency program. Of the 591 4th-year medical students who responded to a survey item on medicine as a calling, 237 strongly agreed that the “practice of medicine is a calling.” Students who strongly agreed that medicine was a calling had higher odds (P=.003) of selecting a primary care-related residency. Identifying with medicine as a calling may increase the likelihood of pursuing a primary care career.
Footnotes
Conflicts of interest: authors report none.
Funding support: This study was funded by the American Medical Association.
- Received for publication April 3, 2017.
- Revision received May 24, 2017.
- Accepted for publication June 26, 2017.
- © 2018 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.