A Cross-Sectional Study on Determinants of Career Choice Preferences among Undergraduate Medical Students at One of the Medical Colleges of Gujarat, India

Introduction: Choosing a medical specialty is a life-defining decision for medical students. As medical students progress through medical course, it is observed that their interests in specialties change due to one reason or another. Objectives: 1.To assess career choices for post-graduation among under graduate medical students. 2. To determine the factors influencing the carrier choices of study participants. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted among 594 MBBS students of one of the Government Medical Colleges of Gujarat during December 2019 to March 2020. All undergraduate medical students except student from 1st year MBBS was enrolled in the study by purposive sampling. A self-administered pretested, semi-structured questionnaire was utilized to collect socio demographic variables, their choice of post-graduation subject and reasons for the same. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation (mean ± SD) and percentage were calculated. Chi square test was applied for statistical analysis. Results: Out of 594 participants studied, 375 (63.1%) were males and 219 (36.9%) females. Most preferred specialties were medicine 138(24.7%) and general surgery 60(10.7%)among all students. Obstetrics and Gynaecology 34(75.6%) and Community Medicine 2(59.0%) were preferred by females while General Surgery 51 (85.0%) and Orthopaedics 20 (87.0%) were more preferred by males as a career. This difference proved to be statistically significant(p < 0.05). The distribution by years with different specialties shows statistically significant differences with Medicine, Dermatology, Paediatrics, ENT, Ophthalmology and Others. Personal interest was most valued influencing factor among184 (31.0%) followed by job opportunities 111 (18.7%) and the least popular factor was financial reasons 17 (2.9%). Conclusion: The majority of the students planned to specialize in clinical fields such as medicine and surgery. Most common factors influenced their choices were personal interests and career opportunities in the preferred fields. Financial reasons or the influence of the role model were least important factor as far as carrier choice of medical undergraduates was concerned.