Habits of Good Medical Students - A Qualitative Analysis of What Students Attribute to their Success Professionally and Academically

Background Medical student attrition rate is suggested to largely be driven by student perception of their academic and professional success. Despite this connection, little research has been conducted to evaluate what makes medical students successful in these domains. Study hypothesis or Objective Our study aims to evaluate medical student perception of drivers of success both academically and in professional identity formation. Methods Through the use of an open-ended qualitative digital survey we evaluated 655 habits of success from 123 first year medical students at our institution. These habits were then analyzed using a constructivist-interpretive thematic analysis, to identify patterns and themes within the responses. Findings From the responses, five main patterns that relate to academic success and professional identity formation emerged. We have designated them: (1) community development; (2) having a study strategy that works for you; (3) personal skill development; (4) professional career development; and (5) wellness. These patterns were represented by students as driving success in academic and professional identity formation with significant overlap. Study Implications The findings of this work suggest that medical students believe that the habits that drive success academically, and professionally are integrated. These findings also call for a holistic approach to academic success and professional identity formation emphasizing community, personal skill development, career development, and wellness as all increasing student perception of success across both domains. While the implications of this study are limited by a single-institution, single cohort design, future research can expand upon these findings by increasing generalizability through the use of multi-institutional and multi-cohort populations.