Abstract
Aims: The study aimed to identify factors influencing Saudi physicians' choice of medical specialty.
Settings and Design: A national cross-sectional survey.
Methods and Materials: Web-based validated questionnaire contained 29 questions covering demographic factors, personality characteristics, career motivations, workload, practice environment, income, and life goals.
Statistical analysis used: Descriptive statistics along with student t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare participants according to their socio-demographic factors.
Results: A total of (384/1,249; 30.7%) physicians responded (240 men and 144 women). The mean age of respondents was 38 years. Around 47% (180/384) of participants chose their specialty during their internship. The most common reasons for specialty choice were being the main area of interest 76% (292/384), followed by scarcity of the specialty in the region (108/384).
Conclusions: Higher income potential and prestige of specialty influenced men's specialty choice more than women. Female physicians reported greater limitations on their specialty choice. Mental skills were judged as more important for psychiatry, internal medicine, radiology, and neurology. Manual skills were judged as more important for ophthalmology and surgery. These findings and others can aid medical students and their mentors in career choice decisions.