Employment Preferences of Cardiologists in Türkiye: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

OBJECTIVE: The homogeneous distribution of physicians is important for ensuring patients' access to health services. To encourage physicians to work in underserved areas, policymakers create incentives. Understanding physicians' employment preferences is essential when developing these incentive packages. This study aims to quantitatively reveal the preferences of cardiologists in Türkiye using a discrete choice experiment (DCE). METHODS: A DCE questionnaire was distributed electronically to all cardiologists in Türkiye. It included 14 different pairs of hypothetical job offers based on seven parameters likely to influence their employment preferences. The data were analyzed using a conditional logit model. The coefficients (CEs) of conditional logistic regression and the willingness-to-accept (WTA) values were calculated. RESULTS: The analysis included 278 cardiologists. It revealed that the most influential parameter was location (CE: 2.86). To move to an undesirable location, the average participant would require an earnings increase of at least 123.3% relative to the average potential earnings of a cardiologist. Other parameters included availability of suitable facilities (CE: 1.07, WTA: 46.3%), harmony with co-workers (CE: 0.92, WTA: 39.61%), working conditions (CE: 0.68, WTA: 29.26%), and the number of night shifts (CE: 0.61, WTA: 26.34%). CONCLUSION: 'Location' emerged as the most important factor in the employment preferences of cardiologists in Türkiye. However, several other monetary and non-monetary factors were also influential, suggesting that policymakers should adopt a holistic approach when developing incentives for cardiologists.

How does evidence-based medicine training affect medical students' views on traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine and the conspiracy theories about COVID-19: a nationwide study.

AIM: It was aimed to explore the relationship between evidence-based medicine (EBM) training and medical students' views on traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TCAM) and their views on conspiracies about COVID-19. BACKGROUND: Medical students constitute the future workforce of primary health care services. The relationship between EBM training and their views on conspiracies about COVID-19 is critical to explore for providing a better primary health care. The relationship EBM training and medical students' views on TCAM is also important in this regard. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. Turkish medical students were surveyed about EBM training, TCAM, and COVID-19 conspiracies. The electronic survey form consisted of five parts: Demographic characteristics, views and self-perceived knowledge about TCAM and the methods, views on the origin of SARS-COV-2, participation in EBM training, and views on TCAM training. A total of 49 medical schools provided response. Along with descriptive statistics, Chi-square test was utilized. FINDINGS: Among 2577 participants, 24.0% of them believed SARS-COV-2 was artificially designed. The students who have participated in EBM training via both lecture and small group discussions have a less positive view on TCAM than both the students who have not participated in any EBM training (p < 0.05) and the students who participated in only-lectures (p < 0.05). There was a significant association between EBM training and whether believing COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2) has been designed purposefully by some people or it has emerged naturally χ2 (1) = 17.21 p < 0.001. The odds of thinking COVID-19 emerged naturally was 1.85 times higher (95% CI: 1.38-2.47) if the students have participated in EBM training via both lectures and small group discussions than if they have not participated in any EBM training. EBM training affects medical students in terms of beliefs on COVID-19 conspiracies.