Content area
Full text
Article info
Article Type:
Original Research
Article History:
Received: 6 Jan. 2018
Accepted: 21 Feb. 2018
epublished: 30 June 2018
Keywords:
Medicine
Career
Specialty
Expectation
Abstract
Background: Health decision makers should be able to predict attitudes of medical students and factors influencing their tendency to allocate enough resources and university vacancy. These attitudes may not be always congruent with the actual and prominent health needs of society. The purpose of this study was to delineate medical students' career prospects and general expectations.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 medical students who were selected through a multi-stage sampling method from all educational stages (basic science, physiopathology, clinical clerkship, internship) studying at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 2016-2017. The first five priorities for work after graduation and first five priorities for residency were studied and the Priority-Percentage Index (PPI), which considers the percentage and a reverse scoring for the priority of selecting an item, was calculated.
Results: Principally, "pursuing one of the medical specialities" was the most desired career choice (3.73 PPI) followed by "employment in private practice" (2.08 PPI) regardless of gender, native status, and stage of education. Although the most preferred specialities were ophthalmology (1.99 PPI), cardiology (1.66 PPI) and radiology (1.44 PPI), the trend of interest varied by educational stage.
Conclusion: Income and reputation have a significant influence on medical students' attitude toward specialities. Therefore, it is crucial that policy-makers note preferences in specialities and consider the society's demand in the field of healthcare.
Introduction
Career expectations are a main concern of all medical students.1,2 Related to this, governments sometimes face difficulty in providing appropriate community health due to a lack of skilled specialists. Therefore, it is important to consider strategies in order to discover medical students' enthusiasms and preconceptions to predict future workforce numbers from the early time ofmedical students' training across the 6 to 7 years it takes them to enter the workforce.3 Moreover, it is essential for officials to predict the ratio of males and females in particular specialities for comparing these results with the general medical demand to allocate enough resources and university vacancies on this basis. For instance, the study of Gadanya and Ismail found high demand in instrument-oriented specialities in males, and relation-oriented specialities...