CAREER MOTIVATIONS OF MALE AND FEMALE MEDICAL-STUDENTS

Australian medical students (N=645) were asked at the beginning of the ir training to rank the importance of a list of motivations relevant t o their choice of medicine as a career. Both male and female students ranked the desire to help others as the most important motivation, clo sely followed by the scientific nature and the intellectual challenge of the profession of medicine. Both genders rated considerations of st atus and prestige as of low importance. These findings are similar to surveys from other countries that have reported altruism and intellect ual challenge as prime motivations for both genders.