Table 2.

Medical Student Perceptions of Primary Care and Specialist Physician Work Life.¹ (Negative statements italicized.)

Statement		Average Perception of Primary Care Physicians	Average Perception of Specialist Physicians	P value
Autonomy	“Formularies or prescription limits restrict the quality of care (primary care physicians/ specialists) provide.”	3.63	3.36	0.02
	Insurance requirements seldom conflict with (primary care physicians/specialists) clinical judgment.”	2.09	2.17	0.16
Administration	“(Specialists’/Primary care physicians’) role in managing the business aspects of practice is not a burden to them.”	2.02	2.14	0.02
	“(Specialists/Primary care physicians) have too much administrative work to do.”	3.85	3.34	0.05
Work pace and schedule autonomy	“(Specialists/Primary care physicians) have control over their work schedule.”	3.08	3.34	0.01
	“(Specialists/Primary care physicians) do not feel harried by the pace of their work.”	2.20	2.45	0.12
Patient Relationships	“Time pressures keep (specialists/primary care physicians) from developing good patient relationships.”	2.94	3.11	0.24
	“(Specialists/primary care physicians) are overwhelmed by the needs of their patients.”	3.17	2.59	0.05
	“Patients have confidence in (primary care physicians/specialists).”	3.84	4.13	< 0.01
	“(Primary care physicians’/specialists’) relationships with patients are adversarial.”	2.03	2.12	0.03

¹Numbers are mean responses to a 5-point Likert scale. 1: strongly disagree; 2: disagree; 3: unsure; 4: agree; 5: strongly agree.