The determining factors of medical students in considering a specialty as a future career path: A cross-sectional multinational study in the Middle East

Abstract

Background and aims: Throughout their years of study, undergraduate medical students are expected to gain broad comprehension of all medical specialties. After acquiring an undergraduate degree, the decision to choose a specialty is critical for every student's life as it determines the rest of their career path. This study aims to determine factors influencing medical students' choices between various specialties in different countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in March 2022 targeting medical students from the Middle East and North African countries. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the students, which consisted of four sections. Ethical approval was obtained from the Unit of Biomedical Ethics Research Committee at King Abdulaziz University. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. For statistical analysis, IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics for Windows (Version 21.0; IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) was used. Categorical variables were presented using numbers, associated frequencies, and percentages (%). Categorical variables were correlated using the Chi-square test. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used to compare the means of three or more independent groups. Logistic regression, odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to identify the factors associated with specialty selection. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: A total of 1109 students responded to the questionnaire. Participants' gender characteristics showed that there were 672 (60.6%) females and 437 (39.4%) males. Among them, 127 were in their second year, 180 in their third year, 362 in their fourth year, 85 in their fifth year, 37 in their sixth year, and 108 were interns. The median age of the participants was 22.0 years (mean = 22.09 ± 2.891). There were 473 (42.6%) students who were undecided about their future medical specialty. Income (759, 68.4%) and career prospects (723, 65.2%) were the most preferred factors in their decision to pursue a future medical specialization.

Conclusions: In conclusion, medical and surgical specialties have been identified as the preferred future career path. It was discovered that student's decision-making is influenced by income, career prospects, and the sense of competency needed to choose a future medical specialty. Future research would be more revealing.

Keywords: Influencing factor; medical student; postgraduate specialty; specialty choice; undergraduate medical education.

Figure 1

World map according to the participants' country of study. Map projection was set according to Gall's stereographic cylindrical projection

Figure 2

Linear chart displaying respondents' average monthly household income in six countries with the highest number of participants in the study compared to their national monthly income