CAREER CHOICES AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS; DOES GENDER INFLUENCE?

Objective: To identify choices of medical specialties as career and to study how gender changes perception and choice of selection? Study Design: Prospective mixed method sequential exploratory study. Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted on final year MBBS students of Allama Iqbal Medical College, from Apr 2014 to Apr 2016. Material and Methods: Quantitative data and qualitative data were collected by a questionnaire and focused group discussion, respectively. Statistical analysis comprised of frequency and percentages for nominal variables, means and standard deviations for numerical variables respectively. For qualitative data, themes were compared between both sexes. Gender specific differences in specialty choice were tested by chi square-test using Pearson chi-square test. SPSS 21.0 was used Results: Total 108 students participated in the research. Students selected internal medicine (31.5%) general surgery (19.4%) and family medicine (18.5%) in descending order. Preference for pediatrics was equal among males and females (21.3%). Significantly higher percentage of male students opted for internal medicine (males 46.2%, female 23.2%) and general surgery (males 33.3%, females 15.9%) as compared to female students (p-values of 0.01 and 0.03 respectively). More female opted for obstetrics and gynecology (30.4%females, males 5%) as compared to male students (p-value=0.002). The most common reason for choice among males and females differed significantly (p=0.039) in two areas only: one; “experience at medical school”. two; “comfortable atmosphere at the specialty department” (p=0.01) with females feeling more strongly about it. Conclusion: Males prefer internal medicine and general surgery whereas females choose gynecology and obstetrics preferentially. The reason for choice in both sexes differs with respect to two factors: “experience at medical school” and “comfortable atmosphere at the specialty department” especially for females.