Investigating Factors Affecting Specialty Choices in Internal Medicine and Radiology Residents: A Cross-sectional Study

Changing the tendency of medical students in specialty choice has been an alarm for policymakers in health services. In recent years, the demand has been very high for radiology and very low for internal medicine. This study aimed to identify the factors influencing radiology and internal medicine residents to choose their future specialty.

In a cross-sectional study, the reasons for choosing the radiology and internal medicine specialties were investigated in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in 2018. Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of 16 questions. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were evaluated and confirmed. Descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney test were used to analyze the data.

Overall, the most important factors influencing the specialty choice were as follows: “Raising the knowledge and improving the treatment”, “personal interest”, and “good job position in the future” with average scores of 4.23, 3.90, and 3.74, respectively. The comparison of residents’ opinions showed that the convenience and lack of emergency (with a mean of 3.90 vs. 2.36, p = 0.0001), social prestige (3.71 vs. 2.98, p = 0.0001), and high income (3.76 vs. 2.97, p = 0.0001) were more significantly important factors in choosing the radiology specialty. The discipline comprehensiveness factor and the possibility of continuing education (4.01 vs. 3.43, p = 0.003) were more significantly important factors in the selection of the internal medicine specialty.

Many factors appeared to inspire physicians to choose a future specialty. By identifying these factors and justifying medical students in the selection of specialty, administrators can steer medical students toward certain specialties to meet the workforce demand.