Research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of what motivates physicians to do their work and what keeps them in the profession.
To explore calling as an approach to work in a sample of physicians.
We designed an online survey addressing career choice and career calling among physicians in French-speaking Switzerland, and measured associations between calling and categorical variables (participant characteristics, motivations for choosing medicine, career choice(s) and consistency, and definition of calling).
The majority of physicians (n = 229) reported that a calling was not a career motivator. The main reasons for becoming a physician were to be useful (n = 173), the scientific aspects of medicine (n = 168), and altruism (n = 153). Viewing medicine as a calling was significantly associated with having been attracted specifically and only to the medical career and stability of this career choice. Physicians defined a calling as internal summons (n = 140), passion (n = 126), and sense of purpose in life (n = 101). Being in the right place, internal summons, and passion were significantly more often considered as a definition for calling by physicians with a calling.
A sense of calling influences career choice and professional stability, and might play a protective role in exhaustion or dissatisfaction at work.