Career Trends in Female Medical Students. A study at Allama Iqbal Medical College / Jinnah Hospital, Lahore

Scholarly Research paper from the year 2014 in the subject Medicine - Other, Allama Iqbal Medical College, language: English, abstract: The purpose of the study is to investigate the Career choices among medical students. The area that is to explore in this research will be helpful for the students to determine the effects of selection, educational background, age and gender on strength of motivation to attend and pursue medical school.Choosing a specialty is a complex process and may be influenced by several factors. There were some changes in the career choices of medical students. Interest in some specialties like surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics & gynecology declined. But the popularity of controllable lifestyle fields such as radiology, psychiatry, dermatology, and ophthalmology has been increased.Career choice has generally been believed to be influenced by many factors including income, intellectual stimulation, role models, and prestige. Both men and women have been shown to select specialties based on some common factors like individual aptitude, personality, and positive clerkship experiences, while men place greater emphasis on prestige, income and manual dexterity skills than women. Although women have traditionally preferred specialties like pediatrics and obstetrics & gynecology, it has been supposed that the preferences of a specialty with a controllable lifestyle such as radiology, psychiatry, and rehabilitation medicine are more appealing to women who want to balance family and career responsibilities. If we do not change the system to encourage and enable women to contribute maximally to their profession, academic specialties can lose a major source of potential talent. The relatively stable work qualities of specialties in comparison with other medical disciplines would seem likely to appeal to female students or doctors.