Career Intentions and the Determining Factors among Health Science Students: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Health systemsneed adequate personnelin order to function; improvements in health-care services delivery, and coverage and the enjoyment of standard healthcare as a right, depend on the availability, mixture, quality, and accessibility of the health-care workforce. PURPOSE: This review aimed to synthesize reliable evidence ondetermining factors among health science students' career choices to enhance policy advocacy for better health-care delivery. METHOD: We sourced empirical studies from Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. From a total of 9,056 researcharticlesfrom 2010 to 2022, 27 studies with a total of 45,832 respondents met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: The majority of the studies were of medical students; internal medicine was the commonest choice (64.3%), with psychiatry and public health receiving lesser attention. In the four available studies of nursing students, midwifery was not chosen at all. There is a paucity of studies on this all-important concept for nursing students. The determining factors of choice of specialty were in four themes: personal, socioeconomic, professional, and educational/policy. Among the barriers to choosing particular specialties were low prestige among colleagues, stigma, long working hours, and poor public recognition. CONCLUSION: The career choices of health science students do not reflect an adequate mix of health-care team members to meet the health-care needs of the world. Reforms of policy and educational training are needed.

Prevalence of Mental Disorders in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Southeastern Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Increasing psychological stressors have posed challenges to the well-being of the people across the globe and greatly affected the functionality and economic output of the individuals and the society. Nigeria has no existing mental health registry. Data on the prevalence of mental disorders are not readily available owing to lack of mental health registry. Hence, this study assessed the prevalence of mental disorders in Abakaliki metropolis, Ebonyi State. AIM: To determine the prevalence of mental disorders and associated factors among the residents of Abakaliki metropolis, Ebonyi State. METHOD: This cross-sectional descriptive research study involved 400 participants. Questionnaires adapted from world mental health diagnostic interview and General Health Questionnaire 12 were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and hypotheses tested using chi-square test at significance level of .05. RESULTS: The prevalence of mental disorders among the respondents was 70% depressive disorders and 52.3% substance use disorders-tranquilizers (34.9%) and stimulants (15.8%) were the commonly used, while 85.3% suffered anxiety disorders. These were common among age range of 19 to 28 years-those with higher education and the unemployed. More females had mental disorders except substance use disorders, which was higher in males (53.4%). There was no significant relationship between mental disorders and the demographic variables, but significant relationship was found to exist between individuals' age and anxiety disorder. CONCLUSION: Mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders, are common among the respondents and, therefore, calls for urgent attention of the government to improve the mental health of the people.

Associative Stigma Against Mental Health Nursing: Ways Forward.

In some countries, there is a serious public stigma against people with mental health disorders that is transferred to those in close association with people suffering from these disorders, such as family members and health-care professionals, a process called associative stigma. The stigma against mental health nurses comes not only from the general public but also from other health-care workers, including nurses themselves. Some nursing education curricula contain little information about mental health, such that prospective nurses graduate with poor knowledge of mental health, reflected in the small number willing to specialize in mental health nursing, especially in developing countries where this stigma is at its peak. Nurses who form a vital part of the mental health team must rise and defend themselves through advocacy for policies to protect world mental health.