Students' views regarding selecting medicine as a profession.

OBJECTIVE: To assess students' perceptions regarding merits and demerits of selecting medicine as a profession. METHOD: A cross sectional survey based on convenience sampling was done, where 300 students of both sexes were included, 150 from a medical profession and 150 from a non-medical profession. They were asked to fill a structured, pretested questionnaire, and the results were analyzed by SPSS 16.0. RESULTS: All medical students mentioned that they selected the medical profession because of personal interest. In addition to this 95% students believed this profession offers services to humanity. However, 87% students felt that their family had an influence in their career selection. Interestingly gender consideration, financial reward and overseas consideration ranked low in order. There was a statistically significant difference between the preclinical and clinical groups in their decision of reselecting medicine, if they were given a second chance (p = 0.001). Of those who did not opt for a medical career, 78% students mentioned that medical training is difficult and prolonged, 75% students felt that there is too much competition while 62% students expressed that doctors have excessive working hours. CONCLUSION: Our study concluded that reasons for joining medical profession are primarily based on personal interest, respect and honor, family influence and service to humanity. Financial gain is not a major consideration of many students in choosing medicine as a profession, however, long working hours and prolonged training discourages many students.

The study of etiological and demographic characteristics of acute household accidental poisoning in children--a consecutive case series study from Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: To determine the agents of poisoning and demographic distribution of children brought to Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) with a history of accidental poison intake and to examine the factors associated with it. METHODS: This hospital based descriptive study of first 100 patients from both sexes who presented to Pediatric department, CHK from 1st January 2006 till 31st December 2008 with exposure to a known poisonous agent and fulfilling other inclusion criteria were included in the study. Data regarding their demographic profile and potential risk factors was collected on a well structured proforma, cases were followed until discharge or expiry. Data was analyzed using frequencies, proportions, group means, median and standard deviations. RESULTS: The male to female ratio in our study was 1.2:1, with kerosene (50%) being the most common household agent followed by medicines (38%), insecticides (7%) and bathroom cleaners (5%). Factors such as mother's education level, number of siblings and storage place of poison correlated significantly with the cases of accidental poisoning. Most of the children (70%) presented within 3 hours of ingestion. Dyspnea was the most common symptom observed. The mortality rate in our study was 3%. CONCLUSIONS: Children belonging to age group 2-3 years are the most susceptible both in terms of morbidity and mortality. Preventive strategies need to be adopted at a national level to spread awareness among parents.