Seeking motivation for selecting medical profession as a career choice

Abstract

Objective: To determine the motivational factors of medical students for selecting medical career as a profession. Methods: This was a survey based cross-sectional study. Medical students of first and second year from private and public medical colleges of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were recruited via convenient sampling and a self-based questionnaire was distributed to them. Besides demographics, questions were based on factors influencing medical students to pursue medical career. Data was collected and descriptive analysis was done using SPSS 21. Results: A total of 300 medical students participated in the study; 129 (43%) of them were males and 171 (57%) were females with mean age of 19.35 years. Among Humanitarian based questions; Serving Humanity gained highest percentage, followed by sympathies for mankind and health for everyone sequentially. In Societal factors, Prestigious Profession and in Scientific factors based questions Challenging Field ranked first. Amongst all the questions Prestigious Profession takes the lead. Conclusion: Major motivation behind selecting medical field was prestigious profession followed by altruism. By understanding medical students’ motivational factors for pursuing medical field we would be able to analyze the future trend of professionals.