Objective: To determine how often Saskatchewan physicians changed care
er paths during medical training and practice. Design: Population surv
ey (mailed questionnaire). Setting: Saskatchewan. Participants: All 10
77 active members of the Saskatchewan Medical Association were sent a
questionnaire; 493 (45.8%) responded. Outcome measures: Long-term care
er goal or plan in next-to-last year of undergraduate medical school,
probable choice of career if forced to choose at that time, and number
of physicians who changed their field of training or practice at any
time since graduation. Results: In all, 57.8% (237/410) of the respond
ents were currently practising in a field different from that planned
in their next-to-last year of medical school, 63.1% (275/436) were not
practising in the field they would have chosen if forced to at that t
ime, and 42.9% (211/492) had changed their field of training or practi
ce at some time since graduation. Older physicians, those who graduate
d outside of Canada and specialists were the most likely to have chang
ed career paths; family physicians and those who graduated in Saskatch
ewan were the least likely to have changed. Conclusion: The current sy
stem of postgraduate training in Canada does not permit career changes
of the sort made by most of the practising Saskatchewan physicians in
the survey sample. The implications of this new system are as yet unk
nown but require careful monitoring.