How gender or culture affects first year Dutch and Swedish students' preferences for specialties and work-life issues

dc.creator	Margret van Tongeren-Alers
dc.creator	Petra Verdonk
dc.creator	Hans Bor
dc.creator	Eva E. Johansson
dc.creator	Katarina Hamberg
dc.creator	Antoine Lagro-Janssen
dc.date	2013-11-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:14:54Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:14:54Z
dc.identifier	10.5116/ijme.5259.7845
dc.identifier	2042-6372
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/ce930ba67cd84717afdc37d2be2d372d
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/17215
dc.description	Objectives: We determine how gender or culture influence new medical students' specialty preferences and work-life issues and explore the relation between work-life issues and each specialty preference. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, we surveyed first year Dutch and Swedish medical students (N=1173, cohorts from 2006-2009) on their preferences for specialties, full-time or part-time work, and agreement to eleven work-life issues. We tested differences by gender or culture using chi square and logistic regression. Results: Over 93of all students responded (N=1095). Almost no male first year student preferred gynecology as a specialty. Dutch male students were more often interested in surgery, Dutch female students in paediatrics. In the Netherlands, male students in particular preferred full-time work. In Sweden gender did not influence working hour preferences. Women in both countries expected equality in career-opportunities and care-tasks more than men, and agreed more often that their career would influence their family life. Women with a preference for surgery most often emphasized equality in career opportunities and care tasks. In most preferred specialties female gender related to a lower degree to full-time work. A gender gap in preferred working hours was larger for Dutch students preferring surgery or paediatrics than for Swedish students. For most of the specialty preferences studied, Swedish students anticipated childcare by day cares and Dutch students' informal day care. Conclusions: Early in training, medical students have gendered specialty preferences and work-life preferences which relate to each other. Gender differences are signifi-cantly more pronounced in the Netherlands than in Sweden.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	IJME
dc.relation	http://www.ijme.net/archive/4/how-gender-or-culture-affects-students-preferences-for-specialties.pdf
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/2042-6372
dc.rights	CC BY
dc.source	International Journal of Medical Education, Vol 4, Pp 214-220 (2013)
dc.subject	gender
dc.subject	medical students
dc.subject	specialty preference
dc.subject	work-life balance
dc.subject	culture
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	How gender or culture affects first year Dutch and Swedish students' preferences for specialties and work-life issues
dc.type	article