STABILITY AND CHANGE OF INTEREST IN OBSTETRICS-GYNECOLOGY AMONG MEDICAL-STUDENTS - 18 YEARS OF LONGITUDINAL DATA

Purpose. To compare the percentage of students who maintain interest i n specializing in obstetrics-gynecology during medical school with the percentages of students maintaining interest in other selected specia lties, and to examine changes of interest from obstetrics-gynecology t o other specialties and from other specialties to obstetrics-gynecolog y. Method. A longitudinal cohort study comparing the stabilities of st udents' interests in obstetrics-gynecology and in other specialties wa s performed by using data on 3,889 graduates of 18 classes of Jefferso n Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University between 1975 and 1992 . Results. The percentage of students who maintained interest in obste trics-gynecology, as measured at the beginning and end of medical scho ol, was 19%, compared with 40% for internal medicine and surgery, 39% for family medicine, and 22% for pediatrics. By the time they graduate d, some students who had planned as freshman to pursue obstetrics-gyne cology had changed their interests to internal medicine (19%), surgery (17%), family medicine (8), or pediatrics (7%). In turn, obstetrics-g ynecology attracted students who had initially expressed interest in o ther specialties: 17% from family medicine, 14% from surgery, 12% from internal medicine, and 8% from pediatrics. Despite the low percentage of students who maintained interest in obstetrics-gynecology, the ove rall percentage of students interested in obstetrics-gynecology at the time of graduation was somewhat greater than the percentage of studen ts interested at the start of medical school. Conclusion. That only ab out one-fifth of the students initially interested in obstetrics-gynec ology maintained their interest, and that many students' interests cha nged from one specialty to another, suggest that factors contributing to changes in interest need further investigation.