Medical Specialties that Interest Students and Why

Background
Whilst at university medical students have the opportunity to spend time in different specialities, however this may only be for a day or two, or in the case of more niche specialities, not at all. Without the exposure on placement, students may never know about the wide variety of career pathways available to them.

 Methods
A quick sell event was set up where clinicians can speak for 2 minutes about their chosen speciality and why students should be interested, with an informal networking event for the students to ask any questions afterwards. Interests in different specialities will be measured before and after the event with via questionnaires. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak the event had to be cancelled, instead a survey was sent out to the students to gather information on what specialities the students were interested in and what helped them decide their career route. The results of this survey can then hopefully be used to create more successful career events in the future.

 Results

• Emergency medicine and Medical Specialities were the most popular specialities
• The biggest difference between genders is their interest in Medical Specialities
• Majority of students are currently interested in 4 different specialities
• No significant difference in age groups and specialities interested in
• The major factor is deciding future careers is if it suits a student’s personality

Key messages

The specialities introduced to students earlier on throughout their university career seem to be the most influential on helping them make career choices.