Pathways and Barriers to Careers in Academic Clinical Cancer Prevention: a Qualitative Study
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Pathways and Barriers to Careers in Academic Clinical Cancer Prevention: a Qualitative Study Melissa Y. Kok 1
&
Janelle C. Chavez 2
&
Pompeyo R. Quesada 3
&
Oluwapelumi T. Adegoke 4
&
Shine Chang 5
Accepted: 2 November 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract National surveys document steady declines over time in interest in academic medicine and cancer prevention careers (Am J Prev Med 54(3):444–8, 2018). Through interviews with 16 academic cancer prevention physicians at one comprehensive cancer center, this study identifies motivations and barriers to physician careers in academic cancer prevention and proposes recommendations to increase recruitment. Participants reported that cancer prevention was vague to them early in training, impairing career exploration. Further, without role models and opportunities to learn about cancer prevention, many were ignorant of career options. Many had incorrect views about cancer prevention practice being mainly within the scope of primary care physicians, and some reported colleagues viewing the rigor of cancer prevention skeptically. However, all described notable experiences—in classes, with mentors, on research projects, or from encounters with patients, motivating them to pursue academic clinical cancer prevention regardless of challenges. Clearly, a lack of both information and guidance towards careers in clinical cancer prevention has been critical barriers to robust recruitment of physicians to the field and must be addressed urgently. Helping physicians earlier during training to both understand the value of prevention and cultivate their interests in it, particularly for clinical cancer prevention, would have widespread benefits. Keywords Occupational choices . Training . Professional development . Medicine
Introduction Advances against cancer, particularly in preventing cancers, can only result from translating research discoveries into practice in the clinic and community, often led by physicians. Despite the critical role that physicians play in furthering cancer prevention, interest in this field has declined [1]. A national survey in 2014 found that < 10% of oncology fellows Melissa Y. Kok and Janelle C. Chavez are co-first authors. * Shine Chang [email protected] 1
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
2
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
3
Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA
4
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, VA, USA
5
Department of Epidemiology, Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
intended to focus on cancer prevention [2], suggesting that among physicians choosing careers in cancer, the number who will feature cancer prevention in their careers will be small. Further, current recruitment rates to oncology are lower than retirement rates among cancer prevention physicians in the USA, indicatin
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