Career motivation among students of different undergraduate medical institutes: A review of existing perceptions

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:To explore future career prospects among undergraduate medical students from different institutes and to review existing perceptions among them. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in six different medical colleges of Pakistan from January 2017 to June 2017 including two public and four private sector medical colleges. A structured and pre-validated questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data was analyzed using SPSS 21 and Epi info 7. RESULTS: Out of 164 students, 75 (45.8%) were males and 89 (54.2%) were females. The public and private sector students distribution was 72 (43.9%) and 92 (56.10%) respectively. Mean age was 22.63±1.99 years. Out of 143 (87.2%) students responding to do specialization, 88 (53.7%) wanted to go abroad while 55 (33.5%) were interested in local training. Upon making rural work obligatory, 111 (68%) showed willingness to work with maximum (n=57/111; 51.35%) wanted to serve the under-privileged community. Majority (n=139; 85%) of the students had no intention to change the profession and maximum (n=55; 33.54%) opted for the field of Medicine as specialization. In factors, own decision by students and gender-based impact on specialization in both sectors had a significant relationship with different motivational aspects (p-value = <0.01). CONCLUSION: The study revealed that majority of the students wanted to do specialization and preferred going abroad for specialization than opting for local training. About two-third of students were willing to join rural setting, if made obligatory and almost all wanted to be in medical profession throughout the life.