Huisartsgeneeskunde: aantrekkingskracht en beroepstrouw ... - Lirias

KCE Reports 90 Making General Practice Attractive: Encouraging GP attraction and Retention 35
3.4.2.3 Analysis
The aim of the questionnaire was to explore the factors that influence the students who
choose a GP career and students who choose another specialty. To determine the
bivariate relation between different factors and specialty choice we performed twodimensional
crosstabs with Cramer’s V q test statistics for the nominal and ordinal
variables and independent samples t-test statistics for the continuous and interval
variables using SPSS 15.0. While construing the 6-point Likert scales in the questionnaire
we paid attention to the equidistance. So, although Likert scales are no true interval
scales, they were treated as one r ; P < 0.05 was set as the level of statistical significance.
‘Just because a test statistic is significant doesn’t mean that the effect it measures is
meaningful or important’ 131 Therefore all the tables of the quantitative part report
effect sizes. This is a standardized measure of group differences; it represents the
strength of the relationship between the variables 132 . An r = 0.1 is seen as a small effect,
0.3 can be interpreted as a medium effect 131 .
In total 423 students (87,2% of the students who filled in the questionnaire) had already
made their decision: 141 (33,3%) wanted to become a GP and 282 (66,7%) preferred
another specialty.
The results about the possible influences for choosing universities (questions 7 - 10
inclusive) are not discussed because these questions had a lot of missing answers and
moreover almost all the students answered in the same way. In the results of the other
questions mostly only the significant test statistics will be mentioned in the text that
follows the tables, also some relevant non-significant statistics will be reported. To be
sure that these significant tests statistics were not the result of the influence of gender
and possible effects of differences between student population of official Dutch or
French speaking Belgian universities, all the variables of the bivariate analysis were put in
a binary logistic regression. The most important results of these multivariate analyses
are discussed, but the tables with the global results are put in appendix 3.8.
3.5 RESULTS OF THE QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
3.5.1 Factors related to study and specialty choice before entering medical
school
CHOOSING A ‘CARING’ PROFESSION
The most prominent motivation to enter medical education is the desire ‘to help
people’. Some students considered other careers as a back- up. Others described this
choice as being self-evident and corresponding to their personal characteristics and
preferences.
GF11 «Ja, ik had eigenlijk geen tweede keuze. Je zegt dan wel van: desnoods farmacie of
diergeneeskunde, maar eigenlijk voor mezelf ging het altijd een tweede keuze zijn....maar
ja met het toegangsexamen moet je een backup-plan hebben... »
G6 « je crois que j’ai toujours voulu faire la médecine, je suis née avec » « Une
passion » « C’est toujours resté. J’ai toujours voulu faire ça »
SF12 «Ja, gewoon bij mijn karakter, omdat ik een zorgend iemand ben en ja met veel
verantwoordelijkheidsgevoel en zo. En daarom vond ik dat het bij mij paste»
q “Cramer’s V is a measure of the strength of association between two categorical variables” (p.727) Field,
A. (2005) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, SAGE Publications Ltd.
r «It has become common practice to assume that Likert-type categories constitute inter-level
measurement» out Jamieson 2004