Tomorrow's Doctors Will Not Be Today's Doctors: Ramifications for Tomorrow's Medicine

10.6145/jme.201203_16(1).0004

Angela Pei-Chen Fan；Russell Oliver Kosik；Greg Allen Mandell；Thomas C Tsai；Dong Trieu Phuong Tran；Tung-Pying Su；Chen-Huan Chen；Allen Wen-Hsiang Chiu

medical students ； generation gap ； physician characteristics

Journal of Medical Education

16卷1期（2012 / 03 / 01）

30 - 38

英文

Introduction: As an older generation of doctors prepares to retire and the established healthcare system morphs into an entity that is better suited to function in today's modernized society, it is important to be aware of precisely how that older generation differs from the younger generation of physicians ready to take over the reigns of the medical establishment. Such a preemptive analysis will not only give us a better understanding of our future doctors, but it can even allow us to speculate about which direction the new leaders of our healthcare system plan to take it. In this study, we examine the traits of physicians, including family socioeconomic data, values, and physical and mental health, across two generations of Taiwanese doctors. Methods: The elder generation is comprised of 93 Taiwanese physicians. The younger generation is a group of 560 students at the National Yang Ming University School of Medicine, who were surveyed during their first year in medical school. All participants completed surveys that included questions concerning family background, education, and various assessments of health, as measured by the Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ, a translated and modified version of the General Health Questionnaire, GHQ), and the Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire (TDQ, a translated and modified version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, CES-D). Results: The younger generation of medical students were significantly more likely to have more educated fathers (p-value ＜ 0.01), to have more educated mothers (p-value ＜ 0.01), to discuss their personal matters or work with relatives and friends (p-value ＜ 0.01), to believe that speaking to others about personal matters is not a weakness (p-value ＜ 0.01), to have participated in community activities (p-value ＜ 0.01), to have personal hobbies (p-value = 0.01), and to have exercised more this year than last year (p-value = 0.01). Meanwhile, the elder generation of physicians were significantly more likely to hope that their children study the same area of expertise as they did (p-value = 0.01), to hope that their children study abroad (p-value ＜ 0.01), to be optimistic (p-value ＜ 0.01), to exercise more than people of the same sex and age (p-value ＜ 0.01), and to have regular exercise habits (p-value ＜ 0.01). Discussion: Our results indicate that there are significant differences between today's younger generation and elder generation of physicians. Most notably, those from the younger generation are more likely to come from families of high socioeconomic status, to be more open about discussing personal matters, and to have significant interests outside of their professional aspirations. Moreover, those from both generations exhibit high levels of perseverance, optimism, and satisfaction with life, suggesting that physicians across both generations are a strong-willed group who find enjoyment in what they do.

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