Career attitudes of preclinical medical students to the medical specialties.

This study set out to investigate the attitudes of preclinical medical students to various specialties. It specifically aimed to measure a range of attitudes to nine medical specialties, by nearly 200 students. Multivariate analysis showed that the scale has various interpretable dimensions which measured such things as the way the specialty is taught in medical school, the recognized efficacy of treatment, type of patients, etc. Univariate analysis revealed numerous significant differences between the subjects' perceptions of the different specialties. It was concluded that the questionnaire provided a reliable, robust and valid instrument for the measurement of medical student attitudes to any or all specialties and may be particularly useful for research in this field.