Perceptions of First Year Medical Students towards Medical Education and Medical Profession

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the first year medical students about the reasons of joining medical education, effective tools to enhance their learning and their future specialization interests.
Design: Descriptive cross sectional study
Place and duration of study: Two private medical colleges of Islamabad, Pakistan from 1st March 2014 to 31st March 2014.
Materials and methods: All the first year medical students of both private medical colleges were included. A questionnaire proforma included questions regarding demographic profile, reason of choosing medical profession, expected type and medium of teaching, co-education versus non-co-education, financial support for studies and career choices. Descriptive statistics and chi square test was used to determine the strength of relationship between different variables.
Results: A total of 180 first year medical students participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 19.2 (+- SD 1.12). Gender distribution was comparable in both medical colleges (54% males versus 46% females). Majority of the participants joined medical profession due to their passion (56.7%) and agreed that getting respect is the main reason of joining this field, 73.3% participants were in favour of co-education. Effective tools of learning were combination of lectures, practicals and small group discussions (SGD). Majority intended to do specialization in future and amongst them, Surgery (51.7%), Obstetrics/Gynaecology (16.1%), Medicine (10%), Paediatrics (8.3%), Radiology (0.6%) and others like Anesthesia/Pathology/Basic sciences (9.3%) ) were their preferred fields of interest.

Conclusion: Passion of medical profession and getting respect is still the main reason of joining medical profession. The traditional fields of medicine are still preferred by majority of the students.