Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Background: In the UK, recruitment of adequate numbers of doctors to emergency medicine (EM) has been problematic. With this as background, we analysed data about career choice for, and progression in, EM in a large multi-purpose study of doctors' careers. Methods: Questionnaire surveys of medical graduates of 1993, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2009 from all UK medical schools. Results: EM was specified as a first choice of career by 4.2% of graduates in postgraduate year 1, 4.8% in year 3, and 3.8% in year 5. Graduates who chose EM were much less likely to be certain about their choice than those who chose other specialties. Of those who specified EM as their first choice of career in year 1, only 26% still had it as their first choice in year 5. Of those who gave EM as their first career choice in year 5, only 27% had given EM as their first choice in year 1. Switches to EM were made, notably, by doctors who previously favoured surgical specialties, hospital physician-led specialties and anaesthetics. Conclusions: Early career choices for EM are less predictive of career destinations than choices for other specialties, and, compared with many other specialties, doctors who pursue it may turn to it relatively late. Training policies on transferable competencies should enable clinical trainees in other related specialties to bank some of their skills if they transfer to EM, rather than necessarily having to start core training in year 1 of EM specialty training.

Original publication

DOI

10.1136/emermed-2013-202460

Type

Journal article

Journal

Emergency Medicine Journal

Publication Date

01/01/2014

Volume

31

Pages

556 - 561