Abstract
Background: Future medical specialties must be chosen carefully by medical students. Several motivational and influential factors play a role during the career choice process. Appropriate choice of the medical specialty by students has an influence on the future healthcare delivery and workforce. Medical schools and practicing doctors have an important role for guidance and mentorship for students. This is the first study of its type to be done in College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. So, the aim of this study is to assess the desired future medical specialties and what are the motivational and influential factors for such decisions.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional questionnaire based study. The data was collected in a period between January - February 2021, through an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of biographical data, desire of future medical specialty, and the underlying motivational and influential factors.
Results: This study enrolled 301 medical students with nearly two-thirds (65.8%) males. It was found that the most commonly indicated perceived specialty was pediatrics (8.3%), followed by internal medicine (8%), orthopedic (6.6%) and general surgery (6.6%). The most commonly mentioned source of advice regarding specialty was family (38.4%), followed by practicing doctors (33.5%) and friends (18.4%). It is found that the top 5 most common reasons for choosing future specialty were; good outcomes on patients, followed by having a good social life, high income, good reputation and prestige, and a challenging specialty.
Conclusion: College of Medicine in King Faisal University needs to engage the practicing doctors with students for better guidance and mentorship. The extra-curricular mentorship programs need to be implemented from the first year of college, so students have a wider range of exposure towards different specialties.