Career choices of Medical doctors at Graduate level ‑ A Multicenter Study

Objective: To find out the specialty choices being taken by Final year Medical students and graduate Doctors.

Method: This is a cross sectional survey study which was conducted over two months from 1st November to 31st December 2016. Final year students and house job doctors were asked for the filling of Performa, after filling the consent form. A self-developed, anonymous questionnaire was used to conduct the study using close ended type of questions. This was a multi-center study conducted at Dow International Medical College and Jinnah Medical and Dental College. An IRB approval was taken for the study. A total of 317 individuals completed the Performa. Demaographic data included information regarding the year of passing, number of family members already in the medical profession, then specific questions were asked regarding their future career choice and the reason for choosing that particular speciality. After collection of data from both the centers a single operator entered the Data on SPSS 16 version. Frequencies and chi-square test were performed and p-valves were tabulated.

Results: A total of 317 individuals completed the Performa. Two hundred and nine participants (65.9%) were females and one hundred and eight (34.1%) were male participants. The age ranged from 22-29 years mean of 25.15 and SD of 1.348. One hundred and twenty one (38%) had a family member as a doctor in the family. Medicine and allied was the most sought after specialty 184(58%), followed by surgery and allied in 108(34%). Non-Clinical Specialty such as radiology, basic sciences was taken up by 27(7.9%).

Conclusion: The working hours followed by passion for the chosen field were the important reasons for selecting any specialty. The next most important reason was higher income and other family responsibilities of an individual. The ladies are opting more for fields with a controllable life style.