A national intercalated medical student research program - student perceptions, satisfaction, and factors associated with pursuing a PhD.

Background: To counteract a decreasing number of physician-scientists, a national intercalated Medical Student Research Programme (MSRP) was launched in Norway in 2002. We aimed to assess whether the students' favourable perceptions and satisfaction with the program had prevailed since the inception in 2002 and until 2015, and to identify factors associated with pursuing a PhD.

Methods: The study was an incorporation of data from two previous national evaluations of the MSRP performed in 2007 and 2015.