Table 4.
Percentages (numbers) of 1977 qualifiers in each specialty 18 years after qualification who gave that specialty as their first choice of career at 1, 3, and 5 years after qualification
| Current career specialty | Chose in year 1 | Chose in year 3 | Chose in year 5 | Did not choose in any of these years | Total No |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospital practice: | |||||
| Medical specialties | 64 (124) | 69 (133) | 75 (144) | 18 (35) | 193 |
| Paediatrics | 63 (25) | 85 (34) | 90 (36) | 5 (2) | 40 |
| Accident and emergency | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 50 (5) | 50 (5) | 10 |
| Surgical specialties | 84 (137) | 94 (154) | 96 (157) | 2 (3) | 164 |
| Obstetrics and gynaecology | 62 (24) | 80 (31) | 92 (36) | 5 (2) | 39 |
| Anaesthetics | 50 (59) | 85 (100) | 90 (106) | 6 (7) | 118 |
| Radiology | 18 (11) | 60 (37) | 86 (53) | 13 (8) | 62 |
| Clinical oncology | 28 (5) | 61 (11) | 83 (15) | 17 (3) | 18 |
| Pathology | 51 (40) | 72 (56) | 85 (66) | 13 (10) | 78 |
| Psychiatry | 46 (45) | 63 (62) | 81 (80) | 15 (15) | 99 |
| General practice | 61 (442) | 82 (593) | 88 (643) | 7 (50) | 727 |
| Total | 58.9 (912) | 78.2 (1211) | 86.6 (1341) | 9.0 (140) | 1548 |
For each specialty, the total used in calculating percentages was the number of respondents working in that specialty in September 1995 who gave information on choices in all three years.
Where doctors had designated, as first choices of equal importance, specialties from more than one group, we regarded their current employment as matching their previous first choice if it matched any of these.
Choices for community health and public health medicine were not separately identified in early surveys (these specialties are omitted from the table).