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Background: Medical students start making up their minds regarding which field they are going to pursue in the last years of their medical education and various factors influence these choices. Exploration of the trends and choices of future career preferences of medical students of a Public Medical College of Rawalpindi was the main purpose of our study. Material and Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in 2016 and 200 Medical students of Fourth and Final Year of Rawalpindi Medical College were included through stratified random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire with closed and partially open questions regarding future preferences was administered and comparison was made between preferences based on gender. Results: Out of 200 students, 196(98%) wanted to pursue their medical professional after graduation. Only 29% had made up their minds regarding future specialty to follow. The most preferred fields were Internal medicine (46%) followed by Surgery (22.5%), Gynaecology & Obstetrics (8%), Pediatrics (6.5%) and Ophthalmology (4%). The factors which played the major roles in influencing students’ choices were personal interest, followed by feasibility with future family, demand for specialist in that field and a good pay package. 54% students wanted to go abroad for studies after graduation. More male students (68.3%) as compared to female students (47.8% ) intended to go abroad for future studies (p- value 0.01) Conclusion: Almost all students intended to pursue in future the medical profession whereas only one third had already made decision regarding the specialty to practice in. Majority of the students wanted to specialize in Internal medicine after graduation while a large number of students showed interest in settling abroad permanently after their graduation. |
