title: Surgery as a career choice among medical students at University of Medical Sciences and Technology.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medical students are the source of a country's surgeons. There are concerns regarding a possible decline in the proportion of students choosing surgery as a career in some developing countries.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify the level of interest in surgical careers and the factors influence a student's interest in pursuing a surgical career in Sudan.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in September 2013 at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan. A self administered questionnaire was distributed to 887 male and female students, (from first to fifth academic years) recruited in the study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Response rate was 73% with 647 questionnaires were collected, out of 887 medical students. Of the returned questionnaires, 604 were valid. Most of the students have decided upon a specialty 541 (89.6%) while 63 (10.4%) did not. Two hundred (36.9%) out of the 541 respondents stated that surgery is their choice for specialty. General Surgery was the popular surgical specialty (48%), followed by Cardiothoracic Surgery (16.5%), Neurosurgery (11%) and Orthopedics (10.5%). Compared with students interested in a career in other medical specialties, those interested in surgery were younger (Pre-clerkship students).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Surgery is the most popular choice of postgraduate training by medical students. Fewer than half of the medical students who choose surgery were willing to consider general surgery as a future career choice. Financial reasons and advice from of others were considered by many students as important factors to select surgery.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor of Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Awad Ali M
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Alawad
authors.affiliation: Department of Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Waleed S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Department of Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Yousif M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Abdelrazig
authors.affiliation: Department of Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Yamin I
authors.initials: YI
authors.lastname: Elzain
authors.affiliation: Department of Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Hassan O
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Khalil
authors.affiliation: Department of Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Omer B
authors.initials: OB
authors.lastname: Elsayed
authors.affiliation: Department of Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Omeralfaroug A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Adam
keywords: Career choice; medical students; surgical specialties