Impact of Gender, Nationality and Drawbacks in Medical Profession as a Predictor of Future Career Specialization among Medical Students

Abstract

"Diverse factors play a crucial role on the Career Preferences among medical students. Hospital-based clinical specialties are always preferred. Nepal had very scanty data on this topic. So this study was designed to examine the influence of gender and nationality, some other dominant factors including drawbacks in future career preferences. A questionnaire-based study was carried out in the Basic and clinical Sciences Campus of Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal. Students from Nepal, India and Sri Lanka participated in the study. The questionnaire included awareness and liking of different subjects for post-graduation, decision age for MBBS and various other factors. Descriptive statistics and testing of hypothesis were used for the analysis. The Chi-square test was performed. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows Version 16.0. Data was collected from 269 students and among them were 110 Nepalese (40.9%), 85 Indian (31.6%) and 74 Sri Lankan (27.5%). Indian students had relatively more awareness about their future career. Females were more aware about future career and happy with routine work, diversity in work, physical and team work. Communication skills, long relation with patients, simple complaints and stressful work attract males. Surgery, OBG, Pediatrics, Neurosurgery, Cardiology were the most desirable specialty among both genders. The findings of this study were imperative and provide ample career guidance for future doctors to fill the gap in different specialties. Constructive steps like encouragement, counseling can be helpful in this context."