Are professional attitudes related to gender and medical specialty?

Objectives The importance of professional attitudes in medical care has lon g been recognized; however, medical training has not stressed attitude deve lopment until recently. In previous studies among medical students, we foun d that gender and specialty preference are important factors in attitudes. In this study, patient-centredness of trainees in general practice and surg ery and of final-year clerks preferring one of these specialties was assess ed in one medical school in The Netherlands. The effect of gender, specialt y and training level on attitude was investigated. Design In 1995, attitudes of 37 general practice trainees, 31 surgery train ees and 120 clerks were measured anonymously using questionnaires containin g the Doctor-Patient Scale. This attitude scale measures patient-centrednes s vs, doctor-centredness. Response rates were 78%, 58% and 84%, respectivel y. Setting University of Utrecht. Subjects Medical students. Results Attitudes were related to specialty. General practice;trainees show ed more patient-centredness than surgery trainees. In accordance with previ ous findings among younger students, no differences were found between fina l-year clerks and vocational trainees. In contrast to previous studies, gen der was not related to patient-centredness. Conclusions Professional attitudes, in particular patient-centredness, seem to be related to specialty preference in the final year of graduate medica l training and specialty as a career choice. It remains unclear whether pro fessional socialization reinforces existing attitudes or whether existing a ttitudes result in specialty preference.