Table 5.
Linear composite variables (LCV) derived via principal component analysis, with varimax rotation
| Factor (% of variance) | Items (Component score) (n = 780^) |
|---|---|
|
How important are the following factors in considering your career in medicine? | |
| Idealism in medicine (21.023) |
Desire to serve my community (0.805) |
| Opportunity to help patients who are socially disadvantaged (0.753) | |
| Opportunities to make a difference in people’s lives (0.732) | |
| Desire to do primary care (0.519) | |
| Employment and job security (20.455) |
Availability of jobs (0.897) |
| Job security (0.883) | |
| Status and income (14.153) |
Status of physicians (0.881) |
| High income potential (0.676) | |
| Career satisfaction (12.239) |
Intellectual climate (0.725) |
| Job satisfaction (0.536) | |
|
How important are the following factors in considering your choice for a specialty? | |
| Prestige and income (19.883) |
Prestige of the specialty I am considering (0.736) |
| Competitiveness of the specialty (0.721) | |
| Options for fellowship training associated with the specialty (0.645) | |
| Income expectations for the specialty (0.542) | |
| Opportunities to do research in this specialty (0.492) | |
| Lifestyle and family (17.080) |
The lifestyle of the specialty I am considering (0.826) |
| Ability to balance my work life with my family responsibilities (0.799) | |
| Length of residency training associated with the specialty (0.569) | |
| Idealism and educational experience (11.772) |
Opportunities to provide care to underserved populations (0.808) |
| Career workshops and courses (0.570) | |
| Debt over interest in content (10.498) |
Amount of education debt I have (0.532) |
| Content of the specialty (-0.794) | |
|
Attitudes toward primary care | |
| Value of primary care skills (19.239) |
Medical interviewing is a fundamental tool for all medical students to learn (0.827) |
| It is essential that medical students learn how to best communicate with patients (0.738) | |
| Preventative care knowledge is essential for all medical students to learn (0.700) | |
| Primary care knowledge is useful for all medical students (0.694) | |
| Negative/antagonistic view of primary care (13.139) |
Primary care doctors mostly manage chronic health problems (0.750) |
| It is impossible to be an expert in such a wide field as primary care (0.750) | |
| I am more interested in learning the skills required for my chosen specialty rather than a general set of clinical practice skills (0.550) | |
| Considering primary care career (11.446) |
I would like to become a primary care doctor in the future (0.702) |
| A primary care doctor is clinically competent to provide most of the health care an individual may require (0.558) | |
| Primary care should be a patient’s first contact with the health care system (0.482) | |
| Primary care is not very intellectually stimulating (-0.558) | |
| Negative/sympathetic view of primary care (10.675) | Primary care doctors are poorly valued by the rest of the medical profession (0.829) |
| Primary care doctors have a large work overload (0.761) | |
^Sample included all medical student groups. Major components (≥0.700) are listed in bold.