ORIGINAL ARTICLES Factors which Influence Postgraduate Career Choice among Final-Year Medical Students

West Afr J Med . 2023 May 27;40(5):519-524.

Abstract

Abstract  in English, French

Background: Non-communicable disease incidence is rising amidst an increasing burden of poor access to surgical resources in "low-and middle-income countries. This calls for an increasing number of surgeons. However, intake into surgical residency training" programmes is reducing due to the decreasing number of applications. This paper looks at the factors which determine postgraduate career choices in order to guide training programme designs and arouse more interest in surgically related "specialties."

Materials and methods: An online questionnaire was sent to the final year medical students' class online social media platform yearly from 2016 to 2020 prospectively. Completed questionnaire forms were returned online. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 21. Age, sex, rating of the surgical clerkship programme, and factors influencing postgraduate uptake were analyzed. All students below the final year were excluded.

Results: A total of 118 completed forms were received. The ages were 21 - 36 years (Mean 24.96±2.74). Males were 70 (59.3%) and females were 48 (40.7%). Overall, all the respondents (100.0%) scored the clerkship programme above average. Only 35 (29.7%) respondents were interested in undertaking a postgraduate course related to general surgery and its subspecialties. The factors which influenced the respondents' career choices were personal satisfaction, affluence, prestige, better patient outcomes, the diligence of lecturers, the need to have more time for one's self, less stress, and the best clerkship experience.

Conclusion: The major factors found to influence career choices include personal satisfaction, affluence, prestige, better patient outcomes, the diligence of lecturers, the need to have more time to one's self, less stress, and the best clerkship experience. Age and year of graduation do not significantly influence postgraduate career choice.

Keywords: Career choices; Medical students; Residency training; Surgical training.