title: Psychiatry as a career: a survey of factors affecting students' interest in psychiatry as a career.
abstract: The objectives of this study were to determine the characteristics of medical students and graduates interested in choosing psychiatry as a career and the obstacles in choosing this field of medicine. Two private and two public medical institutes were surveyed from June 2007 to August 2007. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to third, fourth and final year students and to medical graduates doing their internship in these four medical institutes. A total of 909 medical students and graduates participated in the study. Seventeen percent of participants responded positively regarding their interest in psychiatry as a career. Significantly higher proportion belonged to private medical institutes (14% vs. 24%, P-value =0.001). There was no significant difference in reporting interest for psychiatry in regard to age, sex, year in medical school and whether or not the participant had done a psychiatry ward rotation. However significantly higher proportion of participants (22%, n=43) were reporting their interest in the field of psychiatry who had done more than a month long psychiatry ward rotation as compared to those participants (14%, n=54) with less than a month or no psychiatry rotation (P-value=0.01). More students were reporting their interest in psychiatry with a family history of psychiatric illness as compared to without family history (24% vs 16%, P-value=0.03). In conclusion, students and graduates with more than a month long rotation in psychiatry, studying in private medical colleges and with a family history of psychiatric illness were more interested in choosing psychiatry as a career.
authors.affiliation: Aga Khan University Hospital, and Community Health Science Department, Aga Khan University, Stadium Road, P.O Box 3500, Karachi, 74800 Pakistan. mubashir125@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Mubashir
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aslam
authors.forename: Tahir
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Taj
authors.forename: Arif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: Nasira
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Badar
authors.forename: Farzan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Saeed
authors.forename: Muhammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abbas
authors.forename: Saad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muzaffar
authors.forename: Bilal
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Abid