Twelve tips for having more meaningful conversations with medical students on specialty career choice

Abstract

Making a career choice is a multifaceted process and support for medical students on career choice is pivotal. Not all medical schools have programs or guidelines to support having meaningful conversations with medical students. However, medical students have questions and are seeking answers. This article presents twelve tips for having meaningful conversations with medical students for educators, mentors and internship tutors. The twelve tips have been grouped into three categories: the conversation, the reflection and the actions students can take in the process of their specialty career choice.

Keywords:

• Medicine
• conversations
• specialty career choice
• student support

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Janneke Z. Muyselaar-Jellema

Janneke Z. Muyselaar-Jellema, MD, Public health educator and coordinator of the Public Health clerkship, Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands.

Sophie J. Querido

Sophie J. Querido, Ph.D,. Director of the Central Board for Specialty training in Elderly Care Medicine in the Netherlands (SOON), Utrecht, the Netherlands.