Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Internal Medicine Cantonal Hospital Olten, Solothurner Spitäler AG, Olten, Switzerland.
BMC Med Educ. 2022 Jan 11;22(1):31. doi: 10.1186/s12909-021-03099-4.
A new generation of medical students, Generation Z (Gen Z), is becoming the predominant population in medical schools and will join the workforce in a few years' time. Medicine has undergone serious changes in high-income countries recently. Therefore, it is unclear how attractive the medical profession still is for high school students of Gen Z. The aim of this study was to investigate what motivation leads Gen Z students in their choice to study human medicine, and how they see their professional future. Our study was guided by motivation theory and the influence of personality traits and other personal factors on students' choice of university major.
In a cross-sectional online survey, we included third- and fourth-year high school students in Northern Switzerland. We examined the importance of criteria when choosing a university major: personality traits, career motivation, life goals, and other considerations influencing the choice of human medicine versus other fields of study. Results Of 1790 high school students, 456 (25.5%) participated in the survey (72.6% women, mean age 18.4 years); 32.7% of the respondents aspired to major in medicine at university. For all respondents, the foremost criterion for selecting a field of study was 'interest in the field,' followed by 'income' and 'job security.' High school students aiming to study human medicine attached high importance to 'meaningful work' as a criterion; supported by 36.2% of those students answering that helping and healing people was a core motivation to them. They also scored high on altruism (p < 0.001 against all groups compared) and intrinsic motivation (p < 0.001) and were highly performance- (p < 0.001) and career-minded (p < 0.001). In contrast, all the other groups except the law/economics group had higher scores on extraprofessional concerns.
Swiss Gen Z students aspiring to study human medicine show high intrinsic motivation, altruism, and willingness to perform, sharing many values with previous generations. Adequate work-life balance and job security are important issues for Gen Z. Regarding the current working conditions, the ongoing shortage of physicians, and recent findings on physicians' well-being, the potential for improvement and optimization is high.
新一代医学生 Z 世代（Gen Z）正在成为医学院的主要人群，并将在几年后加入劳动力市场。最近，高收入国家的医学发生了重大变化。因此，目前尚不清楚医学职业对 Z 世代高中生的吸引力有多大。本研究旨在调查是什么动机促使 Gen Z 学生选择学习人类医学，以及他们如何看待自己的职业未来。我们的研究以动机理论为指导，并以人格特质和其他个人因素对学生选择大学专业的影响为指导。
我们在一项横断面在线调查中纳入了瑞士北部的三、四年级高中生。我们研究了选择大学专业时的标准的重要性：人格特质、职业动机、人生目标以及影响选择人类医学与其他学科的其他因素。
在 1790 名高中生中，有 456 人（72.6%为女性，平均年龄 18.4 岁）参加了调查；32.7%的受访者希望在大学主修医学。对于所有受访者来说，选择学习领域的首要标准是“对该领域的兴趣”，其次是“收入”和“工作保障”。希望学习人类医学的高中生非常重视“有意义的工作”作为标准；这一标准得到了 36.2%的学生的支持，他们表示帮助和治愈他人是他们的核心动机。他们在利他主义方面的得分也很高（与所有组相比，p<0.001），内在动机（p<0.001）和表现（p<0.001）和职业（p<0.001）。相比之下，除法律/经济组外，所有其他组在非专业关注方面的得分都更高。
瑞士 Z 世代希望学习人类医学的学生表现出很高的内在动机、利他主义和表现意愿，与前几代人有很多共同的价值观。适当的工作与生活平衡和工作保障对 Z 世代很重要。鉴于当前的工作条件、医生的持续短缺以及最近关于医生福祉的研究结果，改进和优化的潜力很大。
