Australian medical students' attitudes towards specialities and specialists

Two hundred and thirteen medical students in their first five years of study at the Flinders University of South Australia completed a 50-item questionnaire studying their beliefs and attitudes towards the specialities and the specialists involed in hospital medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, and psychiatry. Four factors were identified that appeared to be of particular importance to the students. These were labelled, 'scientific/treatment effective', 'patient relationships', 'usefulness of speciality/and 'intellectual/status'. Psychiatry consistently stood out from the other four specialities on all four factors, although the Australian students in this study generally appeared more positive towards all five specialities than did their British counterparts whose attitudes have been described elsewhere. Students' beliefs about medical stereotypes appeared relatively constant throughout their first five years of medical training.