Professional motives and attitude to medical activities of students of the “Obstetrics” specialty

Abstract

Modern trends in obstetrics have special requirements for the psychological training of specialists in this field. At the same time, a number of researchers note the insufficient formation of professional values and motives of medical students, which has a negative impact on psychological readiness for professional activity. The aim of our study was to study the professional motives and attitudes to medical activities of students of the «Obstetrics»specialty. The following methods were used in the study: the «Motivation of choosing a medical profession» (Henning in the modification of the A.P. Vasilkova), «Color test of relations» (E.F. Bazhin, A.M. Etkind). The research conducted among the students of «Obstetrics» demonstrates the dominance of personally significant professional motives over socially significant motives. The leading professional motive of future obstetricians is such a motive as «the opportunity to care for the health of the loved ones». It is important to note that a more positive attitude towards professional activity is typical for students with the dominance of socially significant motives than for students with personally significant motives. Students with domination of personally significant motives more often demonstrate a negative attitude to the postpartum period as a direction of professional activity, to the patient, to providing psychological support in the course of obstetric activities, in contrast to students with socially significant motives. Thus, the development of socially significant professional motivation of future obstetricians is an important area of training. In addition, in order to improve emotional readiness for professional activities, additional psychological preparation of students for work in such areas as helping a woman in childbirth and the postpartum period is needed, which are the most problematic areas in the views of future obstetricians. Keywords: professional motives; attitude to professional activity; health care; the period of pregnancy, childbirth, the postpartum period; psychological preparation; students of the «Obstetrics»specialty.