The barrier method as a new tool to assist in career selection: covert observational study.

Objective: To determine if senior doctors' parking habits and skills are associated with clinical specialty and, if so, whether observation of junior doctors' parking could provide guidance in choice of specialty.

Design: Covert observational study.

Setting: Pass-card controlled consultants' car park (parking lot), December 2009.

Participants: 103 consultants entering the car park on three consecutive mornings.

Main Outcome Measures: The outcomes were specialty and sex of the consultants, manner of approaching the barrier (pass-card ready or not), and time taken to park, exit the vehicle, and walk to a designated point.

Results: Approaches to the barrier and parking were recorded for 103 consultants (79 men, 24 women): 28 anaesthetists (22 men, six women), 29 physicians (internists, 18 men, 11 women), 14 radiologists (nine men, five women), and 32 surgeons (30 men, two women). The manner of approaching the barrier (card ready) differed by specialty but not by sex. The total time taken to park (seconds) differed significantly between specialties: surgery (median 68, interquartile range 61-71 seconds), anaesthesia (82, 76-91), radiology (86, 70-103), and general medicine (112, 96-136). The time taken to park was overall longer among women, but this was explained by their specialty (men and women matched by specialty did not differ).

Conclusions: The total time taken to park and manner of approaching the barrier to gain entry to the car park differed across specialties. Surgical consultants were fastest, followed by consultant anaesthetists and consultant radiologists, with physicians slowest. Sex was not an influencing factor. If reproducible in studies of a similar nature the "barrier method" could allow for a low cost means of guiding junior doctors in career selection.