Mapping the factors that influence the career specialty preferences by the undergraduate medical students

Abstract

It is often perceived that undergraduate medical students do not select their career specialty until they are graduated. This study aimed to probe the preferences of undergraduate medical students about their career specialty and the factors influencing their choices. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 3rd through 5th year undergraduate medical students to record their choices of specialties and to identify the factors that influence their career selection. Out of 220 respondents, 29 (13.2%) students selected General Surgery, 24 (10.9%) Pediatrics, and 18 (8.2%) Internal Medicine as their career specialties; whereas 24 (10.9%) students were not able to select a major specialty. The least popular specialties were Gynecology and Obstetrics, Oncology, Histopathology, Orthopedics, Genetics, Psychology, each selected by one student. One hundred and seventeen (53.1%) thought their selected specialty 'matched their capabilities' and 82 (37.2%) perceived their selection as "innovative field in medicine". Career advice by friends and families and the desire to serve academic institutions could not influence career selection. Career preferences by medical students result from the interplay of a range of factors. General Surgery, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine were the most preferred specialties. The professional grooming programs to target specialties matching the trainees' capabilities and the specialties with state-of-the-art innovative technologies attract medical undergraduate students. The attained knowledge is vitally important for the policy makers in modifying the existing framework that can cater the popular and favored specialties.

Saudi University Students’ Awareness and Attitude towards Family Medicine Specialty

“…According to FM specialty, the present work showed that only 6% of students chose it as a future career, where it ranked the tenth among eleven specialty options given (Figure 1). This result goes along with that observed in a recent Saudi study done on 220 medical students of Taibah University, where only 6.8% of students chose FM (33).…”

“…The most common specialties chosen by students in the present study were internal medicine, surgery, dermatology and pediatrics. The same result was observed in another two Saudi studies (32,33). This result was also reported by medical students in other international studies where surgery, general medicine and pediatrics were the most chosen specialties by surveyed medical students (34).…”

Career Choices Among Medical Students and Factors Influencing Their Choices

“…Students may be urged to change their choice of specialty after spending few years in training. Such mishaps, primarily due to careless career selection, jeopardize the efforts and undermine the entire process of intended delivery of appropriate health-care services to the community (Guraya & Almaramhy, 2018). Historically, it is noted that medical student's preferences for specialty choice, as well as their motivational factors for a career choice have a tendency to change during the period of their studies.…”

Workplace Learning for Undergraduate Medical Students at a National Referral and Teaching Hospital as Perceived by Lecturers, Administrators and Students of a Contemporary Medical Training University in Uganda.

“…The environment in which students observe their lecturers practicing; the enjoyment the lecturers seem to derive from practicing, or the difficulty in which they practice, can form the basis for choices made by the young, impressionable students. Fewer graduates will choose a specialty as a career if the specialty does not appear attractive at the time of their clinical placement during training, in terms of flexible working hours, availability of equipment and supplies and practice satisfaction (28)(29)(30)(31). In a study done in Ethiopia, students preferred not to specialise in particular disciplines because of observed shortages of equipment and supplies at the workplace (15).…”