Attitudes of pakistani medical students towards psychiatry as a prospective career: a survey.
OBJECTIVE
Pakistan is facing a shortage of psychiatrists; there are about 350 psychiatrists in a country of 150 million. Medical specialty choice surveys of medical students have approached this issue from various angles. The authors' objective is to explore the attitudes of Pakistani medical students toward psychiatry as their future career.


METHODS
Third-year medical students from four medical colleges in different regions of Pakistan participated. A questionnaire was hand distributed and collected in each medical college by a contact person who was not affiliated with the department of psychiatry in any of the medical colleges included in the survey.


RESULTS
The response rate was 60% out of a sample of 381 students. The mean age was 21 years, and 57% were female. The majority (98.4%) were Muslims. Respondents were similar in all demographic characteristics except household income. Only 7.6% reported psychiatry to be either their chosen career or a highly likely choice. A Friedman test found a significant difference in mean scores of ratings of the attractiveness of various career aspects of different specialties.


CONCLUSIONS
Relatively small numbers of students identified psychiatry as their specialty of choice. This trend is similar to many other studies. Given the small number of practicing psychiatrists in Pakistan, this finding is not very encouraging.
Syed
Ehsan Ullah
EU
Department of Psychiatry, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. ehsan.syed@aku.edu
Siddiqi
Mohammad Naim
MN
Dogar
Imtiaz
I
Hamrani
Mohammad Munir
MM
Yousafzai
Abdul Wahab
AW
Zuberi
Saman
S
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002321:Career Choice; D003625:Data Collection; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam; D008297:Male; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D010154:Pakistan; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D000078329:Workforce