What happens to medical students who complete an honours year in public health and epidemiology? Jonathan S Nguyen-Van-Tam, Richard F A Logan, Sarah A E Logan & Jennifer S Mindell Background Around one-third of medical students in the UK take an intercalated honours degree in addition to their basic undergraduate course. The honours year has been reported to have a major in¯uence on subse- quent career choice; honours students show greater interest in research and laboratory medicine careers and less in general practice and public health. 1,2 Aims To examine the career choice of Nottingham medical students who completed an honours year in public health and epidemiology (including general practice). Methods Postal questionnaire and telephone follow-up of a cohort of 266 students who entered the honours year in Public Health and Epidemiology between 1973 and 1993. Results Career information was available on 203 stu- dents; 78% (195) of those are currently employed in medicine. 44% were working in general practice (expected 40±45%) and 8% in public health medicine (expected 2%). Overall 19% (expected 4±11%) had chosen academic careers including nine of the 15 choosing an academic career in public health. The majority (60%) reported that the honours year had in¯uenced their career choice, while 55% reported that the year had increased their likelihood of choosing an academic career. Conclusions The honours year does encourage entry into academic and research careers in general and the type of honours year department strongly in¯uences the subsequent choice of specialty. Keywords *Career choice; cohort study; education, medical; epidemiology, *education; Great Britain; postal service; public health, *education; questionnaires. Medical Education 2001;35:134±136 Introduction The University of Nottingham Medical School (founded in 1970) is unique among UK medical schools in that all students complete a research-based honours year within the 5-year course, leading to the award of a Bachelor of Medical Sciences degree. Students are attached to one of six pre-clinical departments, including Public Health and Epidemiology (PHE), and gain ®rst hand experience of carrying out research, a process to which they would otherwise be unlikely to be exposed until several years after graduation. The in¯uence of an honours year on doctors' future career choices has not been fully explored, although it has been suggested that this has a major in¯uence on subsequent career choice. 1,2 McManus et al. recently reported that students who took an intercalated degree were more interested in careers in research and labora- tory medicine than in public health and general prac- tice. 1 Nottingham is the only medical school in Britain where the option of an honours year in PHE (including research in general practice) is widely available. 3 Subjects and methods In 1996/97 we sent out a postal questionnaire addressed to all students who had entered the medical school between 1970 and 1990 and performed their honours year in PHE (1973±1993). We sought details on: career pathway to date, especially any jobs with a PHE component; ®nal or intended ®nal career choice; and postgraduate quali®cations achieved. A reminder was sent to non-responders, followed by a telephone call. Further information on the number of students that completed each stage of the course and ®nal degree classi®cations was obtained from academic registers. Division of Public Health and Epidemiology, University Hospital, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK Correspondence: Professor Richard Logan, Division of Public Health and Epidemiology, University Hospital, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK Careers 134 Ó Blackwell Science Ltd MEDICAL EDUCATION 2001;35:134±136