Factors derived from analysis of survey responses to underlying attitudinal variables
| FACTORS AND ITEMS* | LOADING† | MEAN (SD) SCORE‡ | EIGENVALUE§ | CRONBACH α‖ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factor 1: medical lifestyle | 3.20 | 0.83 | ||
| • Flexibility outside of medicine | 0.802 | 3.65 (1.11) | ||
| • Acceptable hours of practice | 0.784 | 3.41 (1.25) | ||
| • Flexibility inside of medicine | 0.756 | 3.84 (1.03) | ||
| • Acceptable on-call schedule | 0.742 | 3.34 (1.21) | ||
| • Keeping options open | 0.681 | 3.58 (1.09) | ||
| Factor 2: societal orientation | 2.79 | 0.73 | ||
| • Health promotion important | 0.692 | 3.63 (1.17) | ||
| • Long-term relationship with patients | 0.679 | 3.31 (1.23) | ||
| • Focus on patients in the community | 0.681 | 3.32 (1.23) | ||
| • Social commitment | 0.637 | 3.29 (1.26) | ||
| Factor 3: prestige | 2.67 | 0.72 | ||
| • High income potential | 0.752 | 2.16 (1.17) | ||
| • Adequate income to eliminate debt | 0.708 | 2.14 (1.31) | ||
| • Status among colleagues | 0.694 | 1.91 (1.05) | ||
| • Stable and secure future | 0.636 | 1.79 (1.10) | ||
| Factor 4: hospital orientation | 2.31 | 0.68 | ||
| • Focus on urgent care | 0.758 | 2.95 (1.25) | ||
| • Focus on in-hospital care | 0.726 | 2.88 (1.29) | ||
| • Results of interventions immediately available | 0.679 | 3.08 (1.23) | ||
| Factor 5: scope of practice¶ | 1.74 | −0.50 | ||
| • Wide variety of patient problems | −0.701 | 3.61 (1.89) | ||
| • Narrow variety of patient problems | 0.820 | 2.74 (1.27) | ||
| Factor 6: role model¶ | 1.71 | 0.59 | ||
| • Meaningful past experience with a physician | 0.847 | 2.96 (1.45) | ||
| • Emulate a physician | 0.856 | 2.51 (1.43) |
↵* Additional items not loading onto any factor included good match to this career, interesting patient population, focus on nonurgent care, dislike for uncertainty, prefer medical to social problems, research interest, and short postgraduate training; these were included as separate variables in the subsequent analyses.
↵† Loading represents the correlation between the item and the overall factor.
↵‡ Items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (no influence) to 5 (important influence).
↵§ Eigenvalues measure the variance of the factor.
↵‖ Cronbach α measures internal consistency of test scores, with a “high” α indicating an underlying construct.
↵¶ There are only 2 component items in these factors; the r value is given as r = α under these conditions.