Analysis of the Psychological Factors Faced by the Final Year College Students of China During Job Interviews and While Choosing Careers.

Career choice research has attracted the attention of recruiters and young graduates. The study aims to investigate the psychological factors that influence college students' employment choices. As a result, data for the study were gathered from 250 final-year college students in China via an online questionnaire survey. The study identified the psychological barriers faced by college students during job interviews through interviews with 120 h recruiters. The SPPS tool is used for data analysis. The study identified personal interest, self-efficacy, and self- esteem; social responsibilities; confidence; professional development opportunities; and future orientation as the important psychological factors that influence the career choice of college students. The study also found that the barriers faced by the college students during the interview were anxiety, inferiority complex, cowardice, and pride. Therefore, the study suggests that the college provides job-oriented training for college students' employment choices. The college should take the initiative to provide students with career opportunities and proper training to avoid psychological barriers during interviews.

The early determinants of career choices for medical students following an obstetrics and gynaecology placement: Mixed methods study.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the impact of attending a clinical placement in considering a career in obstetrics and gynaecology. DESIGN: Mixed methods study. SETTING: London Medical School. POPULATION: Fifth year medical students attending a clinical placement in obstetrics and gynaecology. METHODS: Between January 2021 and January 2022, questionnaires were used and semi-structured focus groups conducted, which were audio-recorded. Descriptive statistics were conducted and a framework analysis on transcribed focus groups. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The impact of the clinical placement on career choice. RESULTS: Six main themes were identified from the analysis; three contributing to considering a career in obstetrics and gynaecology; pregnancy is not an illness, extraordinary experience of observing childbirth and variable specialty and three themes emerged contributing to not considering a career; lack of work-life balance, high stakes specialty and the emotional toll. Even at an undergraduate level, medical students exhibited concerns about the long-term feasibility of achieving work-life balance and avoiding professional burnout, which was partly attributed to the responsibility of looking after both the woman and their baby. CONCLUSIONS: Obstetrics and gynaecology is perceived as an exciting and variable speciality by medical students. Students' experiences on the labour ward during a clinical placement appear to contribute to the consideration of a career in obstetrics and gynaecology. Students should be given opportunities to discuss their concerns about obstetrics, particularly over the potential psychological impact of adverse/traumatic birth events. It is crucial to provide a realistic introduction to obstetrics, to recruit enthusiastic junior doctors who will be resilient to the pressures of the speciality, to avoid burnout and minimise attrition rates.

Understanding registered nurses' career choices in home care services: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The anticipated growth in number of older people with long-term health problems is associated with a greater need for registered nurses. Home care services needs enough nurses that can deliver high quality services in patients' homes. This article improves our understanding of nurses' career choices in home care services. METHODS: A qualitative study using individual semi-structured interviews with 20 registered nurses working in home care services. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and thematically analyzed. RESULTS: The analysis resulted in three themes emphasizing the importance of multiple stakeholders and contextual factors, fit with nurses' private life, and meaning of work. The results offer important insights that can be used to improve organizational policy and HR practices to sustain a workforce of registered nurses in home care services. CONCLUSION: The results illustrate the importance of having a whole life perspective to understand nurses' career choices, and how nurses' career preferences changes over time.

A Qualitative Study on Trainees' Perspective on the Benefits of Maternal and Child Health Pipeline Training Programs.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the benefits of the Maternal and Child Health Pipeline Training Program (MCHPTP) to the program participants. The MCHPTP exposes undergraduate students to a series of activities designed to introduce them to career choices in health or health-related professions, which serve maternal and child health populations. A qualitative research interview design was utilized to conduct this study. Data were collected from 15 undergraduate trainees at six Maternal and Child Health Pipeline Training Programs from colleges and universities across the U.S. The results showed that all the trainees would recommend the MCHPTP to other students, they were satisfied with their career interests, and there were many benefits of the MCHPTP.

Afghan medical students' perceptions, and experiences of their medical education and their professional intentions: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Numerous challenges have crippled the Afghan healthcare system on individual, organizational, and societal levels. The Afghans have acknowledged that an evidence-based perspective is paramount to enhancing medical training capacities across the country, which may, in turn, best ensure appointing highly competent authorities to address health system problems on such multiple levels. OBJECTIVES: This study assessed current Afghan senior medical students' perceptions, and experiences of their medical education and their future professional intentions. METHODS: We conducted this cross-sectional study at seven public and private Afghan medical institutes from March to April 2022. We invited 665 senior medical students through an anonymous survey using the Google survey online forms via social-media platforms, such as WhatsApp Messenger. Descriptive statistics were employed for the data analyses. RESULTS: The mean age (± SD) of the students was 23.7 (± 2.2) years and males constituted 79.9% (510) of the study sample. About 22.6% of them rated their medical training as excellent, and nearly a third of them (37%) said that it is good. Nearly half (48.7%) of the students would prefer to stay in Afghanistan. The leading motives for moving overseas were to obtain more advanced and quality education (69.9%), and a decent personal life (43.9%). Nearly two-thirds (67.4%) of them asserted that current political and armed conflicts in Afghanistan may have influenced their professional choices. CONCLUSION: This study epitomizes that the quality of medical education in Afghanistan has room for growth and development to meet the standards set on regional and global grounds.

Factors which Influence Postgraduate Career Choice among Final-Year Medical Students.

BACKGROUND: Non-communicable disease incidence is rising amidst an increasing burden of poor access to surgical resources in "low-and middle-income countries. This calls for an increasing number of surgeons. However, intake into surgical residency training" programmes is reducing due to the decreasing number of applications. This paper looks at the factors which determine postgraduate career choices in order to guide training programme designs and arouse more interest in surgically related "specialties." MATERIALS AND METHODS: An online questionnaire was sent to the final year medical students' class online social media platform yearly from 2016 to 2020 prospectively. Completed questionnaire forms were returned online. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 21. Age, sex, rating of the surgical clerkship programme, and factors influencing postgraduate uptake were analyzed. All students below the final year were excluded. RESULTS: A total of 118 completed forms were received. The ages were 21 - 36 years (Mean 24.96±2.74). Males were 70 (59.3%) and females were 48 (40.7%). Overall, all the respondents (100.0%) scored the clerkship programme above average. Only 35 (29.7%) respondents were interested in undertaking a postgraduate course related to general surgery and its subspecialties. The factors which influenced the respondents' career choices were personal satisfaction, affluence, prestige, better patient outcomes, the diligence of lecturers, the need to have more time for one's self, less stress, and the best clerkship experience. CONCLUSION: The major factors found to influence career choices include personal satisfaction, affluence, prestige, better patient outcomes, the diligence of lecturers, the need to have more time to one's self, less stress, and the best clerkship experience. Age and year of graduation do not significantly influence postgraduate career choice.

CONTEXTE: L'incidence des maladies non transmissibles augmente dans un contexte où l'accès aux ressources chirurgicales est de plus en plus difficile dans les pays à revenu faible et intermédiaire. dans les pays à r evenus faibles et moyens. Cette situation nécessite un nombre croissant de chirurgiens. Toutefois, le nombre de candidatures aux programmes de résidence en chirurgie diminue en raison de la baisse du nombre de demandes d'admission. Ce document examine les facteurs qui déterminent les choix de carrière des diplômés dans les spécialités liées à la chirurgie afin d'orienter la conception des programmes de formation et de susciter davantage d'intérêt pour les spécialités liées à la chirurgie. MATÉRIELS ET MÉTHODES: Un questionnaire en ligne a été envoyé à la plateforme de médias sociaux en ligne de la classe des étudiants en médecine de dernière année chaque année de 2016 à 2020 de manière prospective. Les formulaires de questionnaire complétés ont été renvoyés en ligne. Les données ont été analysées à l'aide du logiciel SPSS version 21. L'âge, le sexe, l'évaluation du programme d'externat chirurgical, les facteurs influençant la participation au troisième cycle ont été analysés. Tous les étudiants en dessous de la dernière année ont été exclus. RÉSULTATS: Un total de 118 formulaires complétés ont été reçus. Les étudiants étaient âgés de 21 à 36 ans (moyenne 24,96±2,74). Les hommes étaient 70 (59,3%) et les femmes 48 (40,7%). Dans l'ensemble, toutes les personnes interrogées (100,0 %) ont attribué au programme d'externat une note supérieure à la moyenne. Seuls 35 (29,7 %) des répondants étaient intéressés par un cours de troisième cycle lié à la chirurgie générale et à ses sous-spécialités. Les facteurs qui ont influencé les choix de carrière des répondants sont la satisfaction personnelle, la richesse, le prestige, les meilleurs résultats pour les patients, la diligence des enseignants, le besoin d'avoir plus de temps pour soi, moins de stress et la meilleure expérience d'externat. CONCLUSION: Les principaux facteurs qui influencent les choix de carrière sont la satisfaction personnelle, la richesse, le prestige, les meilleurs résultats pour les patients, la diligence des enseignants, le besoin de consacrer plus de temps à soi-même, moins de stress et la meilleure expérience d'externat. L'âge et l'année d'obtention du diplôme n'ont pas d'influence significative sur le choix de la carrière postuniversitaire. Mots-clés: Choix de carrière, Étudiants en médecine, Formation chirurgicale, Formation en résidence.

Impact of Dental Institutions' Values on Students' Intent to Practice in Underserved Communities: A Cross-sectional Study.

AIM: To evaluate how an institution's values can impact students' intent to practice in underserved areas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The values of 71 accredited dental schools in the United States were searched and tabulated. The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) survey results were used to tabulate the desire to serve the underserved population before entering dental school and upon graduation. Additionally, responses on the total amount of educational debt on graduation was compiled for LLUSD and all other dental schools. Fisher's exact test was performed to compare the difference between the two cohorts and Wilcoxon test was used to assess difference within the groups. Tests were conducted at an alpha level of 0.05 with SAS v 9.1.3 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA). RESULTS: The top five values of US dental institutions based on frequency were excellence, diversity/inclusion, integrity, innovation, and respect. There was no statistically significant difference between LLUSD and all other dental schools in their desire to serve the underserved community upon graduation (p > 0.05, in all instances). Overall, there was a trend that upon graduation, the desire to serve the underserved had less impact on students' decision-making on their career choices. This drop in the desire to serve the underserved was statistically significant within both cohorts in the year 2021 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Dental institutions should focus on better understanding of how their values impact their students' career choices so that they can develop strategies to better align their values with the mission of addressing the dentist shortage in underserved areas. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Dental institutions' values play a major role in impacting students' career choices upon graduation and should be assessed using metrics that are measurable.

What do Turkish, Spanish, and Pakistani medical students value in specialty training positions? A discrete choice experiment.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to find out specialty training preferences of senior medical students from three medical schools in Turkey, Spain, and Pakistan. METHODS: A Discrete Choice Experiment was carried out using an electronic form for students in three countries in 2021-2022 term. Each choice set in the form consisted of two hypothetical specialty training positions. The attributes were location, earnings, working conditions, personal perspective, quality of education, probability of malpractice, and prestige. Conditional logit model was used to estimate participants' preferences and "willingness to accept" values. RESULTS: The most valued attribute was "personal perspective on specialty area" for Turkish and Spanish students, while this attribute was not meaningful for Pakistani students. Turkish students needed a 204% of change in their income for a swap between the specialty that they like and not like. This tradeoff necessitated a 300% change for Spanish students. The most valued attribute for Pakistani students, which was "working conditions", necessitated a 97% increase in income to switch from working in good conditions to working in poor conditions. CONCLUSION: In this first multinational DCE study in the medical education literature, we found the preferences of medical students in Turkey, Spain, and Pakistan are affected to various extents by several factors.

Work situation and prospects of recently graduated dentists in the Netherlands.

INTRODUCTION: Dentists who have graduated recently from a Dutch dental school work mainly in the Netherlands, where collaboration and differentiation are relevant factors. Furthermore, the Netherlands face regional undersupplies of dentists. The objective of this study was to describe choices and aims of recently graduated dentists for the near future. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An invitation for the web questionnaire was sent by e-mail to 945 dentists who had graduated from a Dutch dental school between 2013 and 2017, of whom 230 (24.3%) participated in the survey. RESULTS: Approximately three quarters (77%) of the recently graduated dentists worked as a general dentist in a practice of some else, primarily in urban areas. The choice for a practice was affected by location, earnings, and the opportunity to gain experience. Furthermore, the career choices were affected most by the desired length of the working week and financial security. The narrow majority (53%) of the recently graduated dentists believed that in 5 years they will be practice owner; 49% expected to be a differentiated dentist. Furthermore, 41% believed they will work in a smaller municipality. DISCUSSION: Although recently graduated dentists seem receptive to work in smaller municipalities, the peripheral regions are conceivably less appealing. Practice ownership conceivably is an option for the near future for a narrow majority of the recently graduated dentists. CONCLUSION: Recently graduated dentists have different preferences regarding their work situation in 5 years.

An improbable journey: Creativity helped me make the transition from art to curing malaria.

I was recently awarded the Alice and C. C. Wang Award in Molecular Parasitology for my contributions to antimalarial drug development, including laying the groundbreaking work that has led to two new molecular methods for curing malaria. This award means a great deal to me because I have spent much of my scientific career feeling like an imposter-one with the wrong sort of background and poor credentials. I am grateful for the recognition, and I am beginning to recognize that having an atypical background can be an advantage because it gives you a different perspective on a challenge. More generally, diversity in educational and cultural backgrounds is important because it can stimulate new ways of thinking and discovery.

Changing hearts and minds: examining student nurses' experiences and perceptions of a general practice placement through a 'community of practice' lens.

BACKGROUND: The recent UK Government paper 'Five year forward view' describes the need to move much patient management from secondary to primary care, and this will require a significant increase in the numbers of General Practice Nurses (GPNs). Until recently, there has been no clear recruitment strategy to address this. There have however been a number of proposed solutions to address the impending GPN recruitment crisis and to increase the numbers of new GPNs in post. General Practitioners (GPs) working in the Advanced Training Practice Scheme (ATPS) have been commissioned by Health Education England to provide placements for student nurses. This paper reports upon the findings of a study evaluating the South Yorkshire ATPS network in relation to nursing students' perceptions of general practice as a placement and a potential career option post-graduation. METHODS: Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 18 nursing students. Qualitative data analysis used a framework approach and themes were cross-checked within the team. The research had ethical approval and anonymity and confidentiality were maintained throughout. RESULTS: Using the Communities of Practice (CoP) framework as a theoretical lens, two main themes emerged from the data: 'Myths and misunderstandings' outlined some of the misconceptions that abounded in the absence of an established CoP in general practice. These included perceptions of what constitutes a 'good' placement, an apparent lack of relevant content in the curriculum, and the widespread use of social media by students as a means of information gathering. 'Changing hearts and minds' referred to the need to positively influence the culture within general practice by addressing some of the longstanding myths. Through the fledgling CoP, the students' perceptions of the GPN role in particular were positively revised, as was the prospect of a career in general practice upon graduation. CONCLUSIONS: The CoP that is emerging through the ATPS placements appear to be gradually changing the socio-cultural landscape within general practice by enabling student nurses to experience the reality of life in general practice nursing, and to view the GPN role as a viable career option upon graduation.

Perceptions, experiences and expectations of Iraqi medical students.

BACKGROUND: The environment for medical education in Iraq has been difficult for many years. The 2003 invasion of Iraq accelerated a steady emigration of faculty and graduates. Kidnappings and deaths of doctors became commonplace. To understand current career plans, expectations and perceptions of medical students, three Baghdad medical schools were surveyed. METHODS: Written questionnaires were completed by 418 medical students variously in their 4th, 5th and 6th (final)years of training. We asked about perceptions of the quality of their medical education, the quality of health services in Iraq generally, and about deaths, injuries and migration of faculty, classmates and family. RESULTS: The average age of students was 22 years, with 59% women. Most students (90%) were originally from Baghdad. Although there were some positive responses, many students (59%) rated the overall quality of their medical education as fair or poor. Three-fourths of students believed the quality of hospital care in Iraq to be only fair or poor. A majority of students (57%) stated they were thinking frequently or all the time about leaving Iraq after graduation. Reasons given for leaving included the desire for further education, seeking a better lifestyle and fleeing conflict. Leading reasons for staying included the pull of friends and family, familiarity with the health system, and a sense of responsibility to the country. Nearly one in five (18%) students reported the death of a family member attributable to intentional violence, and 15% reported the violent death of a medical school classmate or faculty member since the 2003 invasion. Half the students reported at least one school faculty members had left Iraq because of the war. CONCLUSION: Medical students hold a mediocre view of the quality of their medical education and of Iraq's health system. Many of their faculty members have left the country. The majority of students may leave Iraq after graduation, afforded the opportunity. This poses a significant problem for staffing an already demoralized and stressed health system. Current circumstances suggest the situation will continue to deteriorate.

Factors deterring dentistry, medical, pharmacy, and social science undergraduates from pursuing nursing as a healthcare career: a cross-sectional study in an Asian university.

BACKGROUND: Globally more registered nurses need to be recruited to meet the needs of aging populations and increased co-morbidity. Nursing recruitment remains challenging when compared to other healthcare programs. Despite healthcare students having similar motivation in joining the healthcare industry, many did not consider nursing as a career choice. This study aims to identify the deterrents to choosing nursing among healthcare undergraduates by examining the differences in the factors influencing healthcare career choices and nursing as a career choice. METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted using a 35-parallel items instrument known as Healthcare Career Choice and Nursing Career Choice scale. Six hundred and four (n = 604) first year medical, pharmacy, dentistry and social science students from a university in Singapore completed the survey. RESULTS: Nursing as a career was perceived by healthcare students to be more likely influenced by prior healthcare exposure, the nature of the work, job prospects, and social influences. Lack of autonomous decision making, perceived lower ability to make diagnosis, having to attend to patients' hygiene needs, engendered stigma, and lack of parental support were identified as deterring factors to choosing nursing as a career. CONCLUSION: An understanding of the deterrents to choosing nursing as career allows policy makers and educational leaders to focus on recruitment strategies. These include providing more exposure to nurses' roles in early school years, helping young people to overcome the fear of providing personal hygiene care, promoting nurses' autonomous nursing practice, addressing gender stigma, and overcoming parental objection.

Who Chooses STEM Careers? Using A Relative Cognitive Strength and Interest Model to Predict Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

Career aspirations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are formulated in adolescence, making the high school years a critical time period for identifying the cognitive and motivational factors that increase the likelihood of future STEM employment. While past research has mainly focused on absolute cognitive ability levels in math and verbal domains, the current study tested whether relative cognitive strengths and interests in math, science, and verbal domains in high school were more accurate predictors of STEM career decisions. Data were drawn from a national longitudinal study in the United States (N = 1762; 48 % female; the first wave during ninth grade and the last wave at age 33). Results revealed that in the high-verbal/high-math/high-science ability group, individuals with higher science task values and lower orientation toward altruism were more likely to select STEM occupations. In the low-verbal/moderate-math/moderate-science ability group, individuals with higher math ability and higher math task values were more likely to select STEM occupations. The findings suggest that youth with asymmetrical cognitive ability profiles are more likely to select careers that utilize their cognitive strengths rather than their weaknesses, while symmetrical cognitive ability profiles may grant youth more flexibility in their options, allowing their interests and values to guide their career decisions.

Professional identity, career choices, and working conditions of future and young dentists in Germany - study design and methods of a nationwide comprehensive survey.

BACKGROUND: Little is known regarding young and future dentists' career choices, professional identity, and working conditions in Germany. While the dental healthcare environment and demands in treatment are changing, it remains unclear what job perceptions young dentists have developed at the beginning of their work life and if and how these perceptions change during the subsequent years. The aim of this study was to survey future and young dentists regarding their professional identity, planned career paths, and working conditions and strains to understand career decisions and choices and enable policy makers to include future dentists' views and expectations in their decisions. METHODS/DESIGN: This study is a longitudinal nationwide survey over a time span of 4 years of dental students and young dentists in Germany and is comprised of three waves. The first wave focuses on dental students in their final year before the state examination and is composed of a qualitative pre-study in the form of focus groups and a quantitative main survey in the form of a questionnaire. The end points were established to analyse (1) the professional identity of the young future dentists; (2) their career paths, preparation for a career, and basic career conditions; and (3) perceived conditions and strains. The aim of the overall survey was to depict the development of these three aspects during the first years of work life. All of the questions were evaluated with a descriptive univariate analysis. The analysed subgroups were grouped according to gender, target working condition (employed/self-employed), and primary socialisation (parents dentists/parents not dentists). DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, this is the only study which focuses on career choices, professional identity, and working conditions of future and young dentists in Germany. The longitudinal observation provides information that is essential for professional and purposive dental health care planning, and to meet the oral health demands and needs of the German population appropriately over the long term. TRIAL REGISTRATION: German Health Services Research Data Bank VfD_Y-Dent_14_003759 .

Career Choices of Medical doctors at Graduate level - A Multicenter Study.

OBJECTIVE: To find out the specialty choices being taken by Final year Medical students and graduate Doctors. METHOD: This is a cross sectional survey study which was conducted over two months from 1st November to 31st December 2016. Final year students and house job doctors were asked for the filling of Performa, after filling the consent form. A self-developed, anonymous questionnaire was used to conduct the study using close ended type of questions. This was a multi-center study conducted at Dow International Medical College and Jinnah Medical and Dental College. An IRB approval was taken for the study. A total of 317 individuals completed the Performa. Demaographic data included information regarding the year of passing, number of family members already in the medical profession, then specific questions were asked regarding their future career choice and the reason for choosing that particular speciality. After collection of data from both the centers a single operator entered the Data on SPSS 16 version. Frequencies and chi-square test were performed and p-valves were tabulated. RESULTS: A total of 317 individuals completed the Performa. Two hundred and nine participants (65.9%) were females and one hundred and eight (34.1%) were male participants. The age ranged from 22-29 years mean of 25.15 and SD of 1.348. One hundred and twenty one (38%) had a family member as a doctor in the family. Medicine and allied was the most sought after specialty 184(58%), followed by surgery and allied in 108(34%). Non-Clinical Specialty such as radiology, basic sciences was taken up by 27(7.9%). CONCLUSION: The working hours followed by passion for the chosen field were the important reasons for selecting any specialty. The next most important reason was higher income and other family responsibilities of an individual. The ladies are opting more for fields with a controllable life style.

The Educational Impact of Exposure to Clinical Psychiatry Early in an Undergraduate Medical Curriculum.

OBJECTIVE: The medical school at Swansea University provides compulsory early exposure to clinical education through short learning opportunities in the clinical setting (LOCS). These are 3-4-h sessions chosen by students from a list of over 900. Students are required to complete ten LOCS in each of their first 2 years of medical school, with at least one per year being in psychiatry. The objective of this study was to evaluate the educational experience of students undertaking LOCS in psychiatry, in part to understand whether this experience affects student understanding of psychiatry and the likelihood that they will pursue it as a career. METHODS: A mixed methods approach was used. Qualitative focus group discussions were conducted with medical students to explore perceptions of psychiatry and experiences of psychiatry LOCS. Findings informed the development of a structured quantitative survey aimed at a larger sample of students. RESULTS: Six qualitative themes emerged: (1) limited exposure to psychiatry, (2) organizational issues, (3) positive LOCS experiences, (4) stigma, (5) anticipated emotional burden, (6) psychiatry at odds with current understanding of medicine. Questionnaire data showed that psychiatry is not a popular future career choice when compared to other specialties. Psychiatry LOCS are extremely popular with students and have a positive effect on their understanding of the specialty but did little to influence their stated likelihood of pursuing psychiatry as a career. CONCLUSIONS: Early exposure to clinical psychiatry through LOCS gives students positive experiences, which improve understanding and awareness of psychiatry. They do not, however, affect stated career intentions for psychiatry as a profession.

Career attitudes of first-year veterinary students before and after a required course on veterinary careers.

Careers in Veterinary Medicine is a required, one-credit-hour course at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine (NCSU-CVM), which meets once weekly during veterinary students' first semester. Lectures in this course are presented by one or more veterinarians representing diverse career areas. A voluntary, anonymous survey was distributed before the first class meeting in 2011 (PRE) and at the end of the semester (POST) to assess if students' career interests changed during the semester. The survey collected basic demographic data and students' preferences (on a Likert scale) for 17 veterinary career paths. Out of 63 students, 36 (57%) in the POST survey said that their career interests had changed during the semester, and 17 of the 26 students (65%) who gave a reason credited the careers course as one factor in reconsidering their career choice. Only 3 of the 17 career paths had statistically significant PRE/POST survey differences in Likert response frequency (equine practice, pathology, and wildlife medicine), but both informal discussions with students and responses to open-ended survey questions indicated that many students valued the introduction to unfamiliar veterinary career areas. Careers in Veterinary Medicine is a vital component of recent career-planning initiatives in the college, which will be especially important to veterinary students as they face continued changes in the profession, such as the increased debt load of the new graduate and the threat of veterinary workforce oversupply.

Reducing the gender gap on adolescents' interest in study fields: The impact of perceived changes in ingroup gender norms and gender prototypicality.

Despite some progress towards gender equality in Western societies, traditional gender norms still shape career choices, perpetuating a gender gap where girls are more likely to pursue traditionally feminine fields like healthcare, elementary education, and domestic roles (HEED), while boys are drawn to masculine domains such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This research investigates whether, and under which conditions, the perception that gender norms are progressively changing towards less gender dichotomy can reduce this gender gap in academic fields. We recruited a sample of 642 high-school students (394 women and 248 men), and experimentally manipulated both the salience of changes in gender norm (stability vs change) and participants' gender prototypicality. The main dependent variable was participants' interest in stereotypically feminine (HEED) and masculine (STEM) academic fields. The results indicated a slight decrease in the gender gap for stereotypically feminine fields (HEED) among participants who saw themselves as typical members of their gender group, but no significant change was observed for stereotypically masculine fields (STEM). These findings suggest that shifting perceptions of gender norms may have a limited effect on modifying traditional educational and career choices, underscoring the resilience of entrenched gender stereotypes. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11218-024-09909-z.

Identifying factors influencing orthodontic residency program selection.

PURPOSE: The desirability of Orthodontic Residency remains high today relative to the past 30 years. This investigation seeks to re-assess factors influencing Orthodontic Residency program selection amidst contemporary challenges and changes, including increasing student debt, reduced residency stipends, and shifting practice models. METHODS: This mixed-methods study consisted of interviews (qualitative) and surveys (quantitative). Fifteen final-year dental students and first-year orthodontic residents were interviewed one-on-one following a topic guide and then transcripts were analyzed using MAXQDA2022 to identify values, factors, and influences related to program selection and ranking. Qualitative findings and previous studies provided the basis for a survey distributed to residency applicants in 2020-22. Data were analyzed with bivariate and descriptive statistics with stratification by debt group. RESULTS: Interviews (N = 15) elevated the importance of location, interview experience, program cost, and clinical education. Surveys (N = 239) identified the most desirable factors for program selection: satisfied residents, strong clinical training with multiple techniques, good interview impressions, low cost, high patient numbers, a strong reputation, and good clinical facilities with new technology. Less desirable factors include programs that are hospital-based, certificate-only, research-intensive, and require considerable after-hours work. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical education and interview experiences are key for residency selection, consistent with prior studies, though program cost has grown in importance. Findings can help guide orthodontic programs in recruiting applicants and suggest a need to limit educational costs.