Currently submitted to: JMIR Medical Education
Date Submitted: Jul 15, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 15, 2025 - Sep 9, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
NOTE: This is an unreviewed Preprint
Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint (What is a preprint?). Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn (a note "no longer under consideration" will appear above).
Peer review me: Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period (in this case, a "Peer Review Me" button to sign up as reviewer is displayed above). All preprints currently open for review are listed here. Outside of the formal open peer-review period we encourage you to tweet about the preprint.
Citation: Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author).
Final version: If our system detects a final peer-reviewed "version of record" (VoR) published in any journal, a link to that VoR will appear below. Readers are then encourage to cite the VoR instead of this preprint.
Settings: If you are the author, you can login and change the preprint display settings, but the preprint URL/DOI is supposed to be stable and citable, so it should not be removed once posted.
Submit: To post your own preprint, simply submit to any JMIR journal, and choose the appropriate settings to expose your submitted version as preprint.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Experiences on the choice of a medical specialty in Peru: Qualitative study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The choice of a medical specialty is a significant and unique decision, often presenting a complex challenge for aspiring physicians. A significant knowledge gap exists regarding this topic in developing countries, including Peru, where limited research and awareness have hindered progress in this area. This may be essential for gaining a deeper understanding of the healthcare system.
Objective:
The objective of our study is to explore experiences related to the choice of a medical specialty in Peru
Methods:
In this qualitative research, designed as a collective case study, we conducted a qualitative analysis of twenty-four interviews with medical specialists to explore their experiences in choosing their medical specialties. Through content analysis grounded in the constructivist/interpretivist paradigm, the study aims to explore complex and subjective phenomena
Results:
Medical specialists often consider several subcategories when choosing a specialty. These include the influence or impact of formal medical education, personality traits and abilities, the perceived role and societal relevance of each medical specialty, identification with either clinical medicine or surgical disciplines, approaches to disease management, personal passion and motivation, employment opportunities and demand, financial considerations including salary, and factors related to work-life balance such as schedule flexibility and work environment. These are grouped into four categories, all of which are important factors to consider when making a decision.
Conclusions:
In this qualitative study, we identified four key categories that influence the choice of medical specialty: experiences during medical training, identification with the medical specialty, personal factors, and employment-related considerations. Clinical Trial: Approved by the Ethics Committee of the National University of the Altiplano, Puno.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.