Reference (year) | Outcome measures | Results summarised | Does PBL make a student more likely to specialise in a particular career? | P value |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ford et al. [4] | Pathology residency program | No significant difference between PBL/non-PBL groups for choosing a career in pathology | No | – |
Kaufman et al. [14] | Future specialty choice | PBL students who were interested in family medicine at medical school retained this interest at graduation more than Non-PBL students (42 vs 29%). By graduation 39% of PBL students switched career preference to primary care vs 14% of non-PBL students. Retention of interest in other specialties showed no significant difference between programs | Yes | Maintained family practice as choice: 0.05 switched to family practice: 0.05 |
Matsui et al. [9] | Specialty choice | 23.7% of physicians who underwent a PBL curriculum (PBL +) were working in primary care or community care vs 31.4% of non-PBL (PBL −) physicians. 61.6% of PBL + physicians were working in ‘specialist fields’ vs 61.4% of PBL − physicians. 14.7% of PBL + physicians were working in ‘other disciplines’a vs 7.1% of PBL − physicians | No | – |
Mennin et al. [17] | Family practice specialty | 79% of physicians from a PBL curriculum were working in primary care or a mixture of primary care/non-primary care vs 67% from a non-PBL curriculum | No | 0.43 |
Moore et al. [15] | Specialty choice | 58% of physicians from PBL curriculum worked in primary care vs 45% of Non-PBL physicians although this is not a significant difference | No | >0.05 |
Moore-west et al. [16] | Residency choice | Significantly increased numbers of graduates from PBL curriculum chose a primary care residency | Yes | 0.025 |
Pearson et al. [18] | Specialty choice | 57.1% of physicians from a PBL curriculum were working in primary care or psychiatry vs 44.7% of non-PBL physicians | Yes | 0.0001 |
Peters et al. [10] | Specialty choice | 40% of physicians from a PBL curriculum were working in primary care or psychiatry vs 18% of non-PBL physicians | Yes | <0.05 |
Tolnai et al. [20] | Family practice specialty | 45.5% of physicians from a PBL curriculum were working in primary care vs 56.4% of physicians from a non-PBL curriculum | No | 0.05 |
Wesnes et al. [11] | General practice specialty | Curriculum type (PBL vs Non-PBL) was not significantly associated with a primary care career choice | No | >0.05 |
Woodward et al. [19] | Specialty choice | Primary care career choice similar in PBL vs non-PBL curriculum. Graduates from PBL curriculum went on to hold a greater number certificates in family medicine | No | – |