Determinants Leading to Change in Career Preferences among Medical Students

Abstract

Background: Information regarding career choices of medical students is important to plan human resources for health, design need-based educational programs and ensure equitable and quality health care services in a country. Objectives: To determine the change in career preferences with successive years among final year medical students and to determine those factors which affect change in career choices among final year medical students. Study design:  Cross sectional study. Settling:  Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore. Data Collection and analysis: Total 230 final year medical students irrespective of their ethnicity or religion fulfilling the inclusion criteria were asked to fill out self-structured questionnaire, which consisted demographic details and their views regarding career choice and various factors influencing on their choices. Finally, data was analyzed by using SPSS version 21. Frequency and percentage were calculated. Results: Out of 230 final year M.B;B.S students, 177 (76.96%) changed their career preference during their medical education. The most important factor influencing change in career preference was the awareness over the passage of time about their future married life, followed by having children, early settlement, high wages, better working conditions and influence of role model. Conclusion: Re-orientation of health care and medical education should be done along with policy settings to attract doctors to the scarcity and high-priority disciplines so that imbalances encountered would be minimal in future.