Medical students' predisposition to specialize in emergency medicine

Background and objective: Emergency medicine is in the process of becoming recognized as a specialty for primary residency training in Spain. However, the predisposition of future doctors to specialize in this area is unknown since students have never been asked to express their opinions. Therefore, we sought to discover medical students attitudes toward specialization in emergency medicine. Methods: Anonymous survey of students engaged in first- and second-cycle university study of medicine in Catalonia. We recorded demographic data and asked students to indicate their prior theoretical or practical contact with emergency medicine, their intention to enter into such contact, and their intention to choose residency training in emergency medicine if that specialty were available among the range of possibilities. The relations between demographic factors and students' intentions, as the dependent variables, were then analyzed. Results: A total of 171 students at the University of Barcelona, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Lleida, and the Rovira i Virgili University responded. Residency training in emergency medicine was the first choice for 2.4% of the students; 52.1% included emergency medicine among their possible choices for residency training. Emergency medicine was among the top 3 choices for 43.3% when students were asked to rank residencies in internal medicine, family practice, intensive care medicine, orthopedic and trauma surgery, cardiology, and general and digestive tract surgery. A course in emergency medicine had been taken or would be taken by 82.2%, and 94.7% had practical experience in emergency medicine or planned to obtain such practice. The only variable associated with expressing an interest in emergency medicine was having a doctor in the family. Conclusions: Over half the surveyed students of medicine in Catalonia include emergency medicine among the residency training courses they might choose. The students' preferences bear little relation to demographic characteristics or university. [Emergencias 2010;22:15-20]