ABSTRACT
Background: Career counseling to medical students is vital for future needs of health care system
Objective: To assess the perception of students in choosing the medical profession and their future career planning
Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Sheikh Zayed Medical College/Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan Pakistan, comprising 152 medical students. The questionnaire included questions on demographic information like age, sex, and year of study, reasons for choosing medical profession, future plans for specialization and choice of career in Pakistan or abroad, and their plans after graduation. SPSS 16 was used for data entry and statistical analysis
Results: Total number of study subjects was 152. Female participants were 62%. Mean age of participants was 22 +/- 2 year.77 [51%] students said they chose the medical profession because their parents wanted them to be doctors; while 50 [33%] chose the career to serve ailing humanity. Regarding specialization, in this study, 13.2% wanted to specialize in Surgery, 14.5% in Medicine, 3% in Public Health, while 24.3% did not want to pursue the medical profession and applied for positions in civil service by appearing in the Central Superior Services [CSS]. While 68%[103] students wanted to pursue the medical profession in Pakistan, the rest preferred to go to the United Kingdom 18.4%, 10% in America and 4% in Australia
Conclusion: Our study showed that most of the medical students selected medical profession due to parental and peer pressure. It was found that one third wanted to leave the country after graduation and one third wanted to leave the profession after graduation. It shows the lack of career counseling at undergraduate level in country