Monday, January 3, 2011

Your Parking Ability as a Determinant for Medical Career Choice?

One of the most fascinating and questionably relevant studies this author has ever read was recently published.  A covert observational study was conducted by R. Scott McCain et al., published last week in the British Medical Journal showing some very interesting findings.  103 medical practioners were covertly observed as they entered the parking area of a British Hospital over a three day period.  Their speed to enter the parking garage, exit their car, and walk to the facility were each measured. The study looked specifically at the approach to the entrance where a key swipe was necessary, total time to park and then exit the car, and the speed with which they walked to from the car to the facility.
The results are most interesting in that surgeons appeared to be the quickest, followed by anesthseologists, radiologists, then general medical practitioners.  Sex of the physician did not seem to play a role, however, as the males and females physicians did not differ in their specialty.
Unique and consistent behavior has been identified among specialties by this study.  Suggestion is made by the author that this could be a good and inexpensive aptitude test for medical specialty selection.  This is, however, the first study of its kind, and further evaluation should be conducted as the researcher himself was a surgeon.

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