title: Factors considered by undergraduate medical students when selecting specialty of their future careers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medical students are the source of a country's physicians. Determining how medical students select their areas of specialization is the key to achieve a balanced distribution of doctors among all specialties. The objective is to identify the number of medical students who have decided their postgraduate specialty career, their career specialties preference, and factors that may influence their decision to select a particular specialty.
  
  
  METHODS
  A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted in September 2013 at Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan. A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire comprising demographic data and questions about future specialties preferences and factors influencing those preferences 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 collected, out of 887 eligible medical students. Of the returned questionnaires, 604 were valid. The majority of students (541, 89.6%) have chosen a specialty. Surgery, medicine, paediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology were the most selected specialties. The least selected specialty was anaesthesiology. A significant association was found between gender and specialty choice using Chi-square test (p = 0.00). There was no association between undergraduate level and specialty choice (p = 0.633). The most common reason for choosing a specific specialty was "Personal Interest" (215, 39.7%) followed by being "Helpful to the community" (144, 26.6%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Surgery, medicine, paediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology were the most selected specialties.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor of Surgery, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Awad Ali Mohamed Ahmed
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Alawad
authors.affiliation: MBBS, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Waleed Shabeer
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: MBBS, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Yousif Mohammed
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Abdelrazig
authors.affiliation: MBBS, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Yamin Ibrahim
authors.initials: YI
authors.lastname: Elzain
authors.affiliation: MBBS, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Hassan Osman
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Khalil
authors.affiliation: MBBS, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Omer Bakri Elsayed
authors.initials: OB
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.affiliation: MBBS, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Omeralfaroug Ahmed Ibrahim
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Adam
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013038:Specialization; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013397:Sudan; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Medical education; Sudan; career choice; future career; medical students; specialty choice