Overview of identified categories and subcategories illustrated with sample quotations
| Category | Subcategory | Code | Sample quotation |
| Motivation | |||
| Autonomous motivation | Intrinsic motivation | Scientific interest | [The most important reason is] that I am interested in the human body. (S13) |
| Desire to help people | I have always wanted to help people, and this is a form of helping people by means of health care and curing people, or improving quality of life. (S5) | ||
| Identified regulation | Valuing and acknowledging importance of medical study and profession | You save lives. That, to me, is a very important job. (S8) | |
| Controlled motivation | External regulation | Obtaining a degree | No, I really want to obtain a degree. In sports, you can be a champion one day, and the next day you may not be able to do anything for six months. So I really want a degree. (S10) |
| Job perspectives | To me it is important to have job opportunities after 12 years of studying. Doctors are always needed, so that is an advantage of studying medicine. (S1) | ||
| Parental pressure and expectations | But it is easier to conform to your parents’ wishes, to get rid of the nagging. And also, it’s a little like, it doesn’t feel right to do something your parents disapprove of. (S7) | ||
| Prestige | Actually, what everyone secretly thinks, prestige. Being a doctor is highly regarded. (S16) | ||
| High salary | Salary. That is important, besides helping people of course. I want to have a good salary. That is something that plays a role too. (S20) | ||
| Working conditions | Yes, it never seems boring. Not like an office job. (S9) | ||
| Introjected regulation | Maintaining self-worth or image | My mother is a doctor, and so was my grandmother. That’s why I always said: not me, that will be boring at parties and stuff. (S7) | |
| Factors influencing motivation for studying medicine | |||
| Getting acquainted with the medical profession | As (family of) a patient | Three years ago I had a severe infection in my head. […] That experience, like, excited me. I saw the whole environment. […] And I saw everything happening. I thought it was really cool, what everyone was doing. I wanted that too. (S1) | |
| Have a role model (in the family) | My mother has a family practice and I hear a lot of stories about everything that goes on there. […] Sometimes also beautiful stories. Then I think: what a beautiful profession. (S15) | ||
| Internships | I became more enthusiastic after those internships. I got a good impression, too. (S14) | ||
| TV programmes | Yes, in primary school we watched TV programmes. […] Sometimes about history, sometimes about nature, about animals. Sometimes it was about human beings, that they were ill and things like that. I think that made me realise what I liked and didn’t like. (S22) | ||
| Selection process | Lack of knowledge about selection | Medicine was so demotivating, because I still don’t understand these selection processes and the selecting of students. (S18) | |
| Difficulty in gaining admission | Yes, the chances of being admitted [have been the main reason I chose pharmacy over medicine]. My chances of getting into the study. (S1) | ||
| Feeling incompetent | That, to me, was so demotivating, because it’s like ‘if you get really good grades, you will definitely get admitted’. And I am not a very good student. I am not very good at chemistry. (S18) | ||
| Building CV | On the one hand, I think it is a good thing, for the future patients. But on the other hand, it is also demotivating for the less … for students who are very motivated, but who didn’t really have the opportunity to build a CV. (S1) | ||
| High school subjects | During the biology classes, I noticed that I found it all very interesting, especially the human body, and that I found it interesting to learn how it works. Then I figured that the field of study that addresses the human body most is the medical field. (S11) | ||
| Study choice-related activities | Open days | When I attended the open day, they were talking about the study of medicine. It was so tedious. And also, they didn’t present it in an animated way, it was so boring. (S21) | |
| Thinking about study choice | [Then my motivation increased] because I got to thinking about my study choice and about my future. (S2) | ||
| Growing interest in other courses | I’m not sure if I still want to study medicine, because other subjects appeal to me more at the moment. I haven’t decided yet. (S22) | ||
| Study and job characteristics | Hierarchical culture | I also have my doubts about the profession because of the hierarchy. The culture can be tough at times, I think, not very friendly. (S7) | |
| Job perspectives | Many people, medical doctors or specialists, are without a job for a year or a year and a half, or sometimes two years. […] When I graduate, after 12 years of training to become a medical specialist, I don’t want to wait another year. (S17) | ||
| Responsibility for patients | Another reason for refraining from studying medicine can be the prospect of being the one who has to make the decisions in life and death situations. (S16) | ||
| Working conditions | Having to be available at all times as a paediatrician, that is also an issue. For example, you never know what will happen when you’re asleep. (S1) | ||
| Difficulty and length of medical programme | Sometimes I think ‘it takes too long; I will be already 30 when I become a doctor!’. (S2) | ||
| Clash with religious beliefs | I would love to work in a hospital, but there are all kinds of [clothing] regulations, and I am not sure whether that suits me. I am … I wear a headscarf, and well, I comply with the dress code of the Islam, and I am not sure whether that goes together. (S1) | ||
| Basic psychological needs | |||
| Autonomy | Need for making own choice | I didn’t want to do something because of my parents. I wanted something for myself. If I do something to prove myself to someone else, it won’t be fun. (S18) | |
| Competence | Feeling competent | Then I really thought, okay, this is me. That sounds really stupid. This, I just know, sounds very stupid and really very arrogant, but I think I will be a good doctor. I think I just have the capability to do all that. But yes, the admissions criteria did not scare me because I knew I met them. (S14) | |
| Feeling incompetent | I think my chances are not very good because I’m not a great student. (S13) | ||
| Relatedness | Having a medical doctor in the family | Nice people in the profession, that’s the impression I get. […] I like all my mother’s colleagues, very much. So … they all have a very good sense of humour. They all make funny jokes, for example about gastroenterology being the diarrhoea-unit. That kind of stuff. So, that is a lot of fun. (S8) | |