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Table 2 Instructions for Participants and Choice Set No.1

From: What do Turkish, Spanish, and Pakistani medical students value in specialty training positions? A discrete choice experiment

In this part of the questionnaire, you are going to read pairs of specialty training options. Every question consists of two different hypothetical specialty training options that differ in characteristics in seven titles.

Imagine you will start a specialty education and you have two alternatives. These options only differ in the characteristics outlined below. All other unmentioned characteristics are the same.

• “Location” refers to the geographical location of the training position, including the amenities on offer and the proximity to your family/friends.

• “Earnings” refers to how your potential earnings compare against average career earnings in specialties after completing training.

• “Working Conditions” refers to conditions, such as shift hours, amount of on-call, time off, etc.

• “Perspective on Specialty Area” refers to whether you like or do not like the specialty area.

• “Quality of Education” refers to opportunities to improve yourself in your specialty area to be more competent.

• “Probability of Malpractice/Being Sued” refers to whether the specialty is more prone to commit malpractice or being sued by patients.

• “Prestige/Reputation in the Eyes of Community” refers to how the public, family or friends see the specialty area. How prestigious is it? Does it have high reputation?

You may not like either position but we would like you to choose which is better in your opinion!

Don’t forget, there is no true or false answer. All we need is to understand your personal perspective.

Choice Set No.1

Parameters

Option A

Option B

Location

The Location You Desire

The Location You Do Not Desire

Income

40% Above the Average

20% Above the Average

Working Conditions

Excellent

Poor

Personal Perspective on Specialty Area

You Moderately Like

You Really Like

Quality of Education

Low

High

Probability of Malpractice/Being Sued

High

Low

Prestige/Reputation in the Eyes of Community

Low

High

Which One Do You Prefer?

A ☐

B ☐