A national report from the Medical Schools Outcomes Database and Longitudinal Tracking Project shows the vast majority of doctors who trained at the Otago and Auckland Medical Schools, were still working in New Zealand eight years after graduating.
It also showed the most popular specialty for doctors to go into was general practice.
The tracking project has been running in New Zealand since 2007, surveying medical students when they enter medical school, when they finish medical school and again one, three, five and eight years after they graduate.
The research accounts for information on more than 90% of graduating doctors.
Report co-lead author and University of Otago medicine and medical education professor Tim Wilkinson said the project followed doctors who graduated from New Zealand medical schools from 2011-15, and found eight years after they graduated, about 90% of them were still working in New Zealand.
The findings were contrary to the popular belief doctors left New Zealand when they finished studying, he said.
"This report dispels that myth — 90% of our graduates are working in New Zealand, and 91% of them intend to continue working here in the future."
His report also found nearly 36% of them were training or registered in general practice, including those with multiple specialties.
"It shows doctors tend to change their mind about specialties once they are in the workforce, with general practice not always first choice at undergraduate level, but many end up going into that field."
When medical students entered medical school, the survey found about 95% of respondents had decided on a future medical specialty, the top areas being general practice (35.6%), internal medicine (16.6%), surgery (11.2%) and anaesthesia (7.5%).
But of the 89% who answered the survey at graduation, 54% had changed their first preference, and 35% had changed it to one they had not considered among their top three choices eight years prior, Prof Wilkinson said.
About 39% of those who responded to both questionnaires had also changed their preference regarding the size of the population of the place of their future practice.
Of these, 75% changed their preference towards a larger population centre.
University of Auckland medical and health sciences dean Prof Warwick Bagg said intentions at entry to medical school, or even at the time of graduation, could not be relied on to predict medical workforce outcomes.
He also warned graduates’ intentions might change after they started in the workforce.
"While medical school is clearly influential, this research also highlights the importance of the work environment and other incentives that operate after doctors enter the workforce."
The Medical Schools Outcomes Database and Longitudinal Tracking Project is run under the auspices of the Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand organisation.
Its purpose is to gain better understanding of what influences career choices from selection to medical school, and throughout training, to inform policy decisions about medical education and training.
