Career preferences and factors influencing speciality choices among the medical students in Telangana: A cross sectional study (original) (raw)
Related papers
Scholars Journal of Applied Medical Sciences, 2016
What drives a student to prefer a particular specialty over other can also provide an insight into what may be required or needed to deal the existing situation about manpower availability in various specialties? This study was planned with an objective to study factors affecting medical students in formulating their career and specialty preferences. The present cross-sectional study was executed by the Department of Forensic Medicine of a tertiary care teaching institution. In this study, all the medical undergraduate students currently studying in the medical college were included. A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire served as study tool. Students were contacted at the end of theory and practical classes. The questionnaire consisted of 35 items and contained following sections: sociodemographic variables, choice of specialty, reasons for preference and apprehensions in their mind if any. Overall, the most preferred specialties were Orthopaedics (116), surgery (97) followed by internal medicine (77). The least preferred choices were anatomy, physiology (2 each), biochemistry (4), forensic medicine and microbiology (7 each). Three top factors that influenced the student's decisions to opt for a particular specialty included High income potential (average Likert scale 4.6), Employment scope in the future (4.5), Focus on community service to serve the sick and society (3.9). No fear was expressed by 62 (32.6%) of the students, whereas, 68 (35.8%) feared ragging. Fifty students (26.3%) were apprehensive about the long period of study course. Some specialties such as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, forensic medicine and microbiology are not favoured and there is a need to improve student's interest in these areas. There is a need to provide some sort of an orientation and counselling at the time of entry into medical college.
Specialty Preference Among the Newly Passed Medical Graduates and Factors Affecting It
Journal of Evolution of medical and Dental Sciences, 2014
The objectives of the study were to identify the prevailing trend of specialty related career choices and major factors affecting it amongst the newly passed medical graduates of West Bengal, India. It was a questionnaire based cross sectional study. A total of 600 young doctors participated in the study; out of 600, 301 (50.16%) had opted for surgery and allied branches whereas 273 (45.50%) opted for medicine and allied branches. Only 26 (4.37%) had chosen pre and para clinical subjects as their area of specialization. According to their choice, their preferred disciplines were Radio diagnosis 106 (17.66%), Orthopedics 95 (15.83%), Gynae and Obstetrics 88 (14.66%), Pediatrics 35 (10.35%), General Medicine 30 (8.87%), General Surgery (06.80%) and Ophthalmology 39 (06.50%). Amongst the male candidates, subjects selected in order of preference were Orthopedics 95 (28.10%), Radio diagnosis 67 (19.82%), Pediatrics 35 (10.35%), General Medicine 30 (8.87%), General Surgery 23 (06.80%), an...
Speciality Preferences of Indian Medical Graduates and Factors Influencing Them
Postgraduate medical education is being acknowledged as a compulsory qualification to practice speciality medicine in India. This study was conducted to know the current specialty preferences of Indian medical graduates and determine the factors influencing them. A pre-tested questionnaire was administered to doctors graduated during the last 5 years. Medical students and post graduates were not included. The questionnaire included characteristics such as age, sex, number of years since graduation, place of graduation (government or private medical school), preferred speciality and degree. The responses from 168 graduates were collected and analyzed. Statistical analysis was done using Student’s t test and Chi-square test. A total of 124 graduates returned the completed questionnaire. Of the respondents, 107 (86.3%) students preferred one of the clinical subjects, while 8 (6.5%) wanted Para-clinical subjects. Pre-clinical subjects and full-time research was favored by 4 each (3.2%)....
Future specialization interests among medical students in southern India
The National medical journal of India
A consideration of the future specialization interests of undergraduate medical students might help to understand the needs of higher medical education and future manpower availability for healthcare. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 373 undergraduate students of a medical college in southern India using a self-administered questionnaire. Of the 373 students, 188 (50.4%) were men. Almost all of them (370 [99.2%]) wanted to pursue postgraduation. Of these, 267 (72.4%) wanted to pursue postgraduation in India. Overall, the first choice subject was surgery (120 [32.2%]) followed by internal medicine (85 [22.8%]) and paediatrics (43 [11.5%]). The third preference for men and women differed, with men choosing orthopaedics and women choosing obstetrics and gynaecology. The factors that influenced the choice of specialization were interest in the speciality (Likert scale score 4.7), job satisfaction (4.6), employment opportunities (4.0), job security (4) and high income potentia...
Pakistan Journal of Public Health, 1970
Background: Diverse factors influence the career choice of undergraduate medical students. This study was carried out to identify career preferences and factors influencing their selection among undergraduate medical students Methods: The descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among under graduate students. Final MBBS medical students (84) were interviewed. They were interviewed for career preference after finishing medical school and then for reasons of choosing a specific specialty. All information gathered was on voluntary basis. Anonymity and confidentiality was maintained. The study was approved by the college ethical review committee Results: Out of total 84 students 61 (72.6%, males & females) decided about the specialty in final year while 23 (27.4%, males & females) were undecided in choosing their specialty. Among those who have decided in males (n=13) Internal Medicine was the first choice with 68.4% (n=13), general surgery 63% (n=12) followed by Pediatrics 31.6%...
Career preferences and influencing factors among students entering medical school
International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health
Background: Little information is available on the prospective career choices of students entering medical school. So, this study was designed to assess career preferences of fresh medical undergraduates in the Indian setting and evaluate factors influencing their career choices.Methods: A cross-sectional assessment was carried out on 144 freshman year medical students within 2 weeks of joining the course. All participants completed a self-administered study questionnaire. Five specialties – Internal Medicine, Surgery, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Gynecology were chosen for comparison. Responses were rated on a 5 point Likert scale. Data was analysed using SPSS version 18.0.Results: Over one third of the undergraduates reported that they have not made any opinion on their specialty yet. The most popular specialties were Internal medicine, General Surgery and Paediatrics. The least popular specialty was Obstetrics…
Advances in Medical Education and Practice, 2015
The selection of a discipline for future specialization may be an important factor for the medical students' future career, and it is influenced by multiple factors. The interest of students in the early stages can be improved in subjects related to public health or of academic importance, as per need. Methods: A questionnaire-based study was conducted among 265 first-and second-year medical students of Chitwan Medical College, Nepal to find out their subject of preference for postgraduation and the factors affecting their selection along with their interesting basic science subject. Only the responses from 232 completely filled questionnaires were analyzed. Results: The preference of the students for clinical surgical (50.9%), clinical medical (45.3%), and basic medical (3.9%) sciences for postgraduation were in descending order. The most preferred specialty among male students was clinical surgical sciences (56.3%), and among female students, it was clinical medical sciences (53.6%). Although all the students responded to their preferred specialty, only 178 students specified the subject of their interest. General surgery (23.4%), pediatrics (23.4%), and anatomy (2.4%) were the most favored subjects for postgraduation among clinical surgical, clinical medical, and basic medical sciences specialties, respectively. More common reasons for selection of specific subject for future career were found to be: personal interests, good income, intellectual challenge, and others. Conclusion: Many students preferred clinical surgical sciences for their future specialization. Among the reasons for the selection of the specialty for postgraduation, no significant reason could be elicited from the present study.
Career preference of final year medical students of Ziauddin Medical University
Educ Health (Abingdon), 2006
Purpose: The study aims to identify the career preferences of the final year medical student as well as to determine gender differences in career choices. Participants: The participants were 232 final year MMBS students of the first five classes of Ziauddin Medical University. Method: A questionnaire was designed that identified student's choice of specialty, location preferences, and reasons influencing career preferences. Percentages and chisquare were used to determine differences in career preferences of students. Results: Students chose internal medicine, surgery, and pediatrics as their first three career choices. Clinical specialties were highly rated as compared to family medicine. Personal interest was ranked as the most influencing factor that contributed to choice of specialty. Most respondents preferred working in Pakistan as compared to overseas, and for practice selected, private setup was more favored compared to other settings. Gender differences were found in career preferences. Conclusion: The impact of the innovative community education programme is not clearly evident in the study, indicating that several other factors contribute towards decisions regarding career. A critical review by the university is required to strengthen the fields that are being overlooked by the students. A follow-up study would be beneficial to determine the changing trends in career preferences.
Polish Journal of Public Health, 2018
Introduction. Choosing medical specialty is one of the most crucial decisions about future career of graduates. Multiplicity and variety of available options make great opportunities for development of interests and ambitions of future doctors. Unfortunately, it can also be an impediment in making decisions about path of medical career. Aim. The aim of the study was to discover if medical students have problem with choosing specialty and to ask about availability and need of career guidance for medical students. Material and methods. Voluntary survey was conducted via the Internet among medical students in Polish and foreign medical universities. Results. The total number of 565 medical students completed the survey – 371 women (66.5%) and 189 men (33.5%). They were students of 16 medical universities, 10 Polish and 6 foreign ones. Problem with choosing medical specialization reported over 70% respondents. Only 11.9% of the group declare that they participated in classes that were h...