Background Infectious diseases is a crucial specialty in medicine, yet applications for fellowship have declined even as the United States faces an imminent shortage of infectious disease physicians. Career interests often develop in medical school, but little is known about which interests and experiences are associated with interest in ID. Objective Evaluate interest in ID among medical students and identify factors associated with interest and disinterest in ID careers. Methods We developed a 26-question survey to gauge interest in infectious diseases (ID). All 16 medical schools in Texas were contacted and invited to participate. Results A total of 262 students across 9 medical school campuses completed the survey. Those interested in ID as a career had a significantly higher interest in public health (p<0.0001) and global (p<0.0003) health. The presence of an ID campus interest group (p<0.0015) and direct experience with the ID profession (p<0.0001) were also associated with interest. The most common reasons for lack of interest were lack of interest in pursuing internal medicine or pediatric residency, lack of compensation, and lack of procedures. Those interested in ID expressed interest in a wide variety of career pathways within ID, the most common being general inpatient and outpatient ID, as well as medical microbiology and global health/tropical medicine/travel medicine. Conclusions Based on this survey, recruitment efforts for new ID fellows might include focusing on students with interests in public and global health, as well as increasing direct exposure to ID at the medical school level.

中文翻译：

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衡量医学生对传染病的兴趣


背景 传染病是医学的一个重要专业，但即使美国面临迫在眉睫的传染病医生短缺，奖学金申请也已下降。职业兴趣通常在医学院发展起来，但对哪些兴趣和经历与对 ID 的兴趣相关知之甚少。目的 评估医学生对 ID 的兴趣，并确定与对 ID 职业的兴趣和不感兴趣的因素。方法 我们制定了一项包含 26 个问题的调查来衡量对传染病 （ID） 的兴趣。联系了德克萨斯州的所有 16 所医学院并邀请他们参加。结果 来自 262 个医学院校园的 9 名学生完成了调查。那些对 ID 作为职业感兴趣的人对公共卫生 （p<0.0001） 和全球 （p<0.0003） 健康的兴趣明显更高。存在 ID 校园兴趣小组 （p<0.0015） 和对 ID 专业的直接经验 （p<0.0001） 也与兴趣有关。缺乏兴趣的最常见原因是对追求内科或儿科住院医师缺乏兴趣、缺乏补偿和缺乏程序。那些对 ID 感兴趣的人对 ID 中的各种职业道路表示感兴趣，最常见的是普通住院和门诊 ID，以及医学微生物学和全球健康/热带医学/旅行医学。结论 根据这项调查，新 ID 研究员的招聘工作可能包括关注对公共和全球健康感兴趣的学生，以及在医学院增加对 ID 的直接接触。