Choice of speciality amongst first-year medical students in the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Azu, Onyemaechi Okpara; Naidu, Edwin Coleridge Stephen; Naidu, J. S.

doi:10.4102/phcfm.v5i1.513

Cited by 19 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 22 publications

(36 reference statements)

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“…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).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Saudi University Students’ Awareness and Attitude towards Family Medicine Specialty

Desouky¹,

Turkistani²,

Althobaiti³

2018

ME-JFM

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university students' awareness and attitude towards family medicine specialty. AbstractBackground: Worldwide, there is shortage of family medicine (FM) specialists and disinterest of medical students in choosing FM as a career. Saudi Arabia is facing the same problem.Objectives: The aim of this study was to know the magnitude of knowledge and attitude of Saudi medical and non-medical students towards FM specialty.Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on 708 students of Taif University using a self-administered questionnaire about socio-demographic factors, knowledge and attitude towards FM specialty.Results: Medical students showed a significant higher percentage of students who saw that FM specialty has an essential social function, has a pleasant working environment, has a high social status, is an attractive option for a medical students, is an interesting specialty from a research perspective, and is an important specialty in: disease prevention/Health promotion, familyfocused health care, bio-psychosocial focus of health care, collaboration with other sectors, team work, bioethics, and urgent care. Only 6% of medical students chose FM as a future career, and the most common factor influencing the specialty preferences was the good working condition and the quality of life. Female students and older grades showed a significant higher percentage of students choosing FM as a future career. For all participants, the study reflects the bad reputation about FM specialty regarding its status within the medical profession, scientific prestige and salary.Conclusion: Medical students had better knowledge and perception of family medicine compared to non-medical students, but they had low interest in choosing it as a future career.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Saudi University Students’ Awareness and Attitude towards Family Medicine Specialty

Desouky¹,

Turkistani²,

Althobaiti³

2018

ME-JFM

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“…Variations exist in the proportion of medical students that received career guidance in Africa. From a study in South Africa, it was 54 % [18], while a study in Gambia reported as high as 90 % of medical students having no form of career counselling [39]. Perhaps the absence of career counselling among the respondents in this study may be the reason why 11.2 % of the students were yet to make a decision on their specialty of choice few months to graduation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…This is commendable as it is of societal good however this result is at variance with one from a study in South Africa, where the major reason for studying Medicine among the students was personal interest [18]. The different reasons for studying Medicine by the students in the two countries could be attributed to the background differences of the students.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…With the continuous improvements in medical practice, specialization in Medicine has become the global trend as similar high proportion of medical students were willing to pursue specialist training from the results of several studies [18, 19, 21–24]. In Nigeria, this trend of increasing quest for specialization by medical doctors has been partly attributed to improved remunerations and work conditions in public tertiary health institutions where these trainings take place [24].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Specialty preferences among final year medical students in medical schools of southeast Nigeria: need for career guidance

et al. 2016

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BackgroundIn resource-poor settings with low doctor-population ratio, there is need for equitable distribution of healthcare workforce. The specialty preferences of medical students determine the future composition of physician workforce hence its relevance in career guidance, healthcare planning and policy formulation. This study was aimed at determining the specialty preferences of final year medical students in medical schools of southeast Nigeria, the gender differences in choice of specialty and the availability of career guidance to the students during the period of training.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among final year medical students in the six accredited medical schools in southeast Nigeria using self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. Information on reason for studying Medicine, specialty preference and career guidance were obtained. Chi-square test of statistical significance was used in the analysis.ResultsA total of 457 students participated in the study with a response rate of 86.7 %. The mean age was 25.5 ± 2.9 years and 57.1 % were male. Majority (51 %) opted to study Medicine in-order to save lives while 89.5 % intended to pursue postgraduate medical training. A higher proportion (51.8 %) made the decision during the period of clinical rotation. The five most preferred specialties among the students were Surgery (24.0 %); Paediatrics (18.8 %); Obstetrics and Gynaecology (15.6 %); Internal Medicine (11.0 %) and Community Medicine (6.8 %) while Pathology (2.0 %); Anaesthesia (0.7 %) and Ear, Nose and Throat (0.2 %), were the least preferred. Compared to females, a higher proportion of male students intended to specialise in Surgery (32.3 % vs 13.0 %, p < 0.001) in contrast to Paediatrics (11.2 % vs 28.8 %, p < 0.001). Majority of the students, 74.6 % had no form of career guidance during their stay in medical school and 11.2 % were undecided on choice of specialty.ConclusionIn spite of the high proportion of students willing to pursue specialist medical training after graduation, most opted for the four core clinical specialities of Surgery, Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Internal Medicine. Majority of the students made these decisions during clinical rotations. Also, majority had no form of career guidance throughout their stay in medical school. To ensure an equitable distribution of a limited physician workforce in a resource-poor setting, there is need for proper career guidance for the students and this should be in line with the national health needs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0781-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…[12,13]. It has also been observed that the age of commencement of specialization differs in different nations and it is relevant since it could determine how easily others such as friends and family can influence the making of choice of specialty [16].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitude of Final Year Medical Students and House Officers to Otorhinolaryngology Surgery Training

Uju

2019

AJMAH

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Background: A good proportion of medical students and house officers will consider specialization in different aspects of medicine following graduation. However, there are still individuals who at this stage are undecided both in the question of specialization as well as on what area to pursue a career in. In a developing and resource poor country such as our environment where the doctor-patient ratio is very poor, proper distribution of physicians to meet the health demands of the people becomes of utmost importance. Study Design: A descriptive questionnaire based study. Place and Duration: Department of otorhinolaryngology surgery university of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital between January 2019 and March 2019. Methodology: We distributed semi structured self- administered questionnaire to all the final year medical students and the house officers of university of port Harcourt and university of port Harcourt teaching hospital. Only the house officers that did rotation in the ORL surgery department and final year medical students that gave their consent were recruited into the study. Those that did not do a rotation in ORL among the house officers and those that did not give consent were excluded. The data obtained was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 and results presented in simple statistical tables. Results: In this study there was a recovery rate of 82.4% with 70 respondents, 45 males and 25 females with a ratio of 1.8:1. Age range was 20 to 39 years. The age range 25-29 (58.57%) was the highest and least in age 35-39(4.29%). The final year medical students constituted 57.14% of the study population, 60% (n=42) did not want to specialize; only about 31.43% will like to specialize. while57.14% rated their clinic exposure as excellent, most rated the trainer`s method mainly average. Most; 74.3% will not choose ORL, 14.3% were undecided and only 11.4% will like to specialize in ORL. Main reason for this choice is exposure during clinical rotation and mentorship. Conclusion: The interest in ORL among medical trainees is poor. Among those interested, exposure during clinical rotation is paramount. Dedication and innovative ideas on the part of teachers and mentors may arouse the interest in this specialty.

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Choice of speciality amongst first-year medical students in the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Cited by 19 publications

References 22 publications

Saudi University Students’ Awareness and Attitude towards Family Medicine Specialty

Saudi University Students’ Awareness and Attitude towards Family Medicine Specialty

Specialty preferences among final year medical students in medical schools of southeast Nigeria: need for career guidance

Attitude of Final Year Medical Students and House Officers to Otorhinolaryngology Surgery Training

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