scholarly journals Career Choices Among Medical Students of Rawalpindi Medical University, Pakistan: A Comparative Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
Nabila Aisha Mann-Isah ◽  
Nuzla Ameen ◽  
Ghufran Jassim

BACKGROUND: Physicians’ specialty choices have a direct impact on medical workforce. As medical students progress through medical school, it is observed that their interests in specialties change due to one reason or another. The aim of this study is to firstly identify factors that influence medical students’ career choices using a cross sectional study. Secondly, to analyze which factors are the most influential with the aim of informing the work force and curriculum developers and thus enhance the employability of graduates. METHODS: A computer generated random sample of 131 medical students was taken from the preclinical second-year medical students at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland-Medical University of Bahrain. Questionnaires were distributed face to face and later retrieved for data collection and analysis. RESULTS: Eighty-four (70%) students responded to the survey. Thirty-two (38.1%) of the respondents were male and fifty-two (61.9%) were female. The top three preferred specialty choices were Surgery 22 (26.5%) followed by Internal medicine 12 (14.5%) and Paediatrics 11 (13.3%). The most popular factor in specialty choice was interesting field and the least popular factor was geographical location of the hospital or health instituation. CONCLUSION: The top three career choices were selected because those students felt they were interesting fields. The least important factors were geographical location of the hospitals or health instituations, media influence and financial reasons respectively.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-187
Author(s):  
Maciej Walkiewicz ◽  
Małgorzata Tartas

The goal of the paper is to describe the extent to which medical students and professionals are vulnerable to extreme stress. A select review of existing literature on this area has been undertaken, using the English-language online databases EBSCO, Medline and PubMed. The search has identified 36 citations relating to 6324 medical students and 28,285 medical staff (physicians, residents, nurses). The review indicates that merely beginning medical studies is a risk factor for stress, and that medical professionals, who are vulnerable to extreme work stress, say that they do not receive enough support from their co-workers. They are also often notably impulsive, introverted, neurotic and perfectionist, with low emotional intelligence and agreeableness, as well as low and external locus of control. Additionally, from longitudinal studies we have been able to identify psychological factors underpinning admission to a medical university that may be useful for predicting future stress in medical career. The results of this study may be taken into account when organizing psychological intervention programs targeted at educating future medical professionals. It seems that early identification of people at risk could reduce the impact of stress related to medical career and enhance the somatic and mental health of medical professionals.


Author(s):  
Victoria Ruzhenkova ◽  
Irina Sheremet’eva ◽  
Viktor Ruzhenkov

Stress negatively affects the mental health of students, causes anxiety and depression, leads to poor academic performance, lowers level of professional training and success in the future. The purpose of the research is to study the state of mental health of medical students to develop recommendations for the prevention of maladaptation. Materials and methods. 252 5-year students aged 20–29 (22 ± 1,1) years, 168 (66,7 %) females and 84 (33,3 %) males (137 students of Belgorod State University and 115 of Altay State Medical University (ASMU)) were examined by medico-sociological and psychometric methods. Results. It was established that every fifth student of the Belgorod State University and every third of the ASMU did not enter the medical university on their own initiative. Less than half (43 %) of Belgorod State University students and 30.4 % of the ASMU ones are convinced that the choice of profession was correct, 35 and 37.4 % are, consequently, completely disappointed with it. Students of Belgorod State University dealt with training stress factors poorer and, as a result, have more pronounced mental symptoms of training stress, difficulties in organizing the daily regimen, irregular nutrition, and fear of the future. Regardless of the region of studying, the number of students not committed to the medical profession, after 5 years of study, is more than 3 times higher among those who enter the university not on their own initiative. Students of the ASMU hit substances, skipped classes, played computer games and took sedative drugs more often to overcome academic stress. The degree of anxiety before the exams in students of Belgorod State University was higher (9 points) than in their peers from the State Medical University (7 points). An extremely high (8–10 points) level of anxiety before exams was characteristic of 75,9 and 44,3 % of students, respectively. The former were more likely to experience clinically significant panic attacks: 27,7 and 6,1 %. Conclusion. Given the high incidence of social phobia (19,1–24,1 %), depression (22,6–32,2 %) and anxiety (21,9– 27,8 %) among medical students, the development and implementation of psycho-correctional programs aimed at the formation of adaptive ways to overcome stress, reduce anxiety and depression is required. This will prevent the development of psychosomatic disorders and addictions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3572
Author(s):  
Lavinia-Maria Pop ◽  
Magdalena Iorga ◽  
Iulia-Diana Muraru ◽  
Florin-Dumitru Petrariu

A busy schedule and demanding tasks challenge medical students to adjust their lifestyle and dietary habits. The aim of this study was to identify dietary habits and health-related behaviours among students. A number of 403 students (80.40% female, aged M = 21.21 ± 4.56) enrolled in a medical university provided answers to a questionnaire constructed especially for this research, which was divided into three parts: the first part collected socio-demographic, anthropometric, and medical data; the second part inquired about dietary habits, lifestyle, sleep, physical activity, water intake, and use of alcohol and cigarettes; and the third part collected information about nutrition-related data and the consumption of fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs, fish, and sweets. Data were analysed using SPSS v24. Students usually slept M = 6.71 ± 1.52 h/day, and one-third had self-imposed diet restrictions to control their weight. For both genders, the most important meal was lunch, and one-third of students had breakfast each morning. On average, the students consumed 1.64 ± 0.88 l of water per day and had 220 min of physical activity per week. Data about the consumption of fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs, fish, sweets, fast food, coffee, tea, alcohol, or carbohydrate drinks were presented. The results of our study proved that medical students have knowledge about how to maintain a healthy life and they practice it, which is important for their subsequent professional life.


Author(s):  
Paulina Majek ◽  
Mateusz Jankowski ◽  
Bartłomiej Nowak ◽  
Maksymilian Macherski ◽  
Maciej Nowak ◽  
...  

Heated tobacco products (HTPs) are devices for generating a nicotine aerosol by heating the tobacco sticks. This study aimed to assess (1) the prevalence of HTP and tobacco cigarette usage among medical students, (2) to characterize smoking habits and (3) to assess students’ awareness and opinions about HTPs. A cross-sectional survey on the frequency and attitudes toward cigarettes, e-cigarettes and HTP use was performed between 2019–2020 at the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland). The data were obtained from 1344 students aged 21.8 ± 1.9 years (response rate: 66.9%). Current traditional tobacco use was 13.2%, e-cigarettes use 3.5%, and HTP use 2.8% of students. Duration of use was shorter among HTPs users comparing to cigarette smokers (p < 0.001) although the number of tobacco sticks used daily was similar (p = 0.1). Almost 30% of respondents have ever tried HTPs. HTPs were considered safe by 5.3% of respondents (43.2% of HTP users vs. 3.9% of non-HTP users, p < 0.001). HTP users were more likely to report that heating tobacco is not addictive (odds ratio (OR) = 8.9, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.8–45.8) and disagreed with a public ban on HTP use (OR = 4.9, 95%CI: 2.5–9.8). Among students, HTP use was less popular than cigarette smoking, but awareness of their presence is widespread.


2016 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Harries ◽  
Suck Won Kim ◽  
Jon E. Grant

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayo Sugiyama ◽  
Hirotaka Watanuki ◽  
Yasuhiro Futamura ◽  
Masaho Okada ◽  
Minori Nishimura ◽  
...  

Abstract Background There is currently a chronic shortage of surgeons, particularly cardiac surgeons, in Japan and worldwide. Additionally, the number of female medical students has been increasing worldwide; half of our university’s medical students are females. We assessed the attitudes of medical students regarding preferred lifestyles and specialties, aiming to identify strategies for increasing the number of surgeons in Japan. Methods We conducted a questionnaire survey among second- and fifth-year medical students at Aichi Medical University, to assess their career priorities and ideal lifestyles when choosing specialties. In total, 71 second-year (male:female, 36:35) and 55 fifth-year (male:female, 27:28) students were surveyed. Differences were compared between school year and sex. Results Few students considered becoming general surgeons (19%) or cardiac surgeons (14%). Most students were more interested in how interesting (92%) and rewarding a particular field (88%) would be, rather than in dedication to work (7%) or career advancement (6%), regardless of school year or sex. Females were particularly concerned about a heavy workload (79% vs 68%) and were less likely to prefer surgery (9% vs 27%) compared with males. The importance of acquiring useful skills (77% vs 95%) and wanting to train in the neighboring Tokai area tended to increase (21% vs 60%) with increasing grade. Conclusions Most students had decided their ideal career path in the lower grades and desired controlled lifestyle. To increase the number of surgeons, it is necessary to improve surgeons’ lifestyles, reduce their workloads, develop medical students’ interest in surgery, and ensure development of useful skills.


Author(s):  
Masahiro Toda ◽  
Nobuhiro Nishio ◽  
Satoko Ezoe ◽  
Tatsuya Takeshita

The authors investigated associations between smartphone use and chronotype. To 196 medical university students, they administered a set of self-reporting questionnaires designed to evaluate smartphone use and chronotype. Respondents were categorized into morning types and evening types: for females, the evening types scored higher for smartphone dependence; the authors also found greater duration of Web browsing service, in particular Twitter, in the evening types. No such correlation was found for male respondents. These findings provide evidence that, particularly for females, smartphone use and/or dependence may be related to chronotype.


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