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| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2018 | Volume
: 20
| Issue : 1 | Page : 20-28 |
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Factors influencing career choice in otorhinolaryngology among medical students at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Ghofran Qorban1, Talal Al-Khatib2, Sara Howldar1, Ohoud Allinjawi1, Hanan Jawa1, Mukhtiar Baig3
1 House-officer, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2 Department of Otorhinolaryngolo-gy-Head & Neck Surgery, King Ab-dulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Ara-bia
3 Department of Clinical Biochemis-try and Medical Educationist. Faculty of Medicine, Rabigh, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Institute: King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| Date of Web Publication | 23-Dec-2019 |
Correspondence Address:
Ghofran Qorban
Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah
Saudi Arabia
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | 2 |
DOI: 10.4103/1319-8491.273915
Background: Objective: The study was designed to investigate factors influencing career choice among medical students interested in Otorhinolaryngology (ORL) at Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 531 medical students participated. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using SPSS-16.
Results: A total 531 participating medical students belonged to 4th, 5th, and 6th year. Two hundred twenty-one (41.6%) were interested in ORL specialty. Almost all of the students (95%) agreed that a patient’s ear, nose, throat, and head & neck health plays an important role in their overall health. The majority of the participants (68%) disagreed that that ORL is less important than other specialties. There were several reasons for selecting ORL as career choice such as: a secured and respected job (71%), well-paid job (63%), rewarding work, grateful patients (69%), opportunity to meet people of different age groups and various backgrounds (68%), a window into ordinary people’s everyday life (52%), comprehensive doctor-patient relationships (54%), versatile, challenging work (54%), and long-term doctor-patient relationships (58%).
Conclusion: Overall participants’ responses were overwhelmingly positive to pursue a career in ORL specialty.
Keywords: Career choice, ENT, Otorhinolaryngology, Medical student
How to cite this article:
Qorban G, Al-Khatib T, Howldar S, Allinjawi O, Jawa H, Baig M. Factors influencing career choice in otorhinolaryngology among medical students at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Saudi J Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2018;20:20-8 |
How to cite this URL:
Qorban G, Al-Khatib T, Howldar S, Allinjawi O, Jawa H, Baig M. Factors influencing career choice in otorhinolaryngology among medical students at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Saudi J Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Surg [serial online] 2018 [cited 2023 Mar 27];20:20-8. Available from: https://www.sjohns.org/text.asp?2018/20/1/20/273915 |
| Introduction | |  |
Otorhinolaryngology, a product of the mid-twentieth century, created from the combining of the isolate departments of otology, whose doctors were surgeons, and laryngology which was overseen by doctors who also treated diseases of the nose and chest. In the course of the most recent 30 years, the specialty has experienced dramatic improvement and has exploited new advances in endoscopy, microsurgery, the utilization of laser, free tissue transfer remaking and microchip technology [1].
ORL is an assorted and entrancing specialty. The special senses of hearing, smell, and taste and the critical elements of swallowing and speech all fall inside an ORL specialist’s domain. ORL is different in both patient blend and the sorts and intricacy of methods embraced. It provides sup-port from neonates with airway route issues to elderly patients with head and neck tumors [2].
Different elements impact the career decisions of undergrad medical students like, individual enthusiasm for the specialty, stable and secure future, the notoriety of specialty, career move-ment, high pay potential, good examples and so forth. It has been proposed that a comprehension of factors that impact profession choices may help in workforce planning, maintaining a strategic distance from over or undersupply of doctors in various specialties [3].
This specialty deals a higher number of kids than some other surgical specialties except pediat-ric specialists. ORL specialists additionally deal with all the non-surgical care of their patients. Audiology, allergy, sleep issue, voice pathology, adjust scatters, and the rhinological issue can all frame some portion of a facility workload [2].
Amid medical training, college students are defied with an extensive variety of medical spe-cialties. Their encounters majorly affect the choice about further education and preparing once they have completed their basic medical studies. The reasons why medical students pick their professions are mind-boggling. While these inclinations of graduating medical students signifi-cantly affect a few essential determinants of health care delivery, the qualities and inspirations that underlie these choices stay still mostly caught on [4]. Different components are likely compelling in helping students to make a pledge to a solitary specialty. Interest in a specialty, strong tutoring, and a presentation that gives the student a rea-sonable comprehension of what is involved in the act of the picked specialty are key elements in coordinating student’s decisions [5].
In view of their characterization, radiology, neurology, pathology, psychiatry, ORL, dermatology, anesthesiology, and emergency medicine include a gathering of the controllable way of life-style specialties in which specialists can control their work hours in ways that other medical ex-perts are definitely not. The decision of medical students and specialists for their postgraduate medical specialist training has an imperative impact on future work constrain in health care sys-tem, particularly in times of deficiency or oversupply of doctors [4].
Medicine is an assorted field in which the particular specialties are related with contrasts in doctor’s duties, the clinical situations they confront and their experiences with patients. Thus, from the viewpoint of medical students, the determination of medicinal specialty depends on numerous determinants identified with health care delivery. The comprehension of this proce-dure is intricate and just in part deciphered and comprehended because of the different factors involved. A wide assortment of specialties are picked in view of individual, social, national and worldwide qualities and inspirations reflecting unmistakable identities in each field alongside some modifiable and non-modifiable elements, for example, scholarly accomplishments, finances, the way of life and available good examples[6].
There are a few social differences between western societies and the Saudi people; such con-trasts may assume a part in profession decisions of our medical students putting into thought that the number of female students selected to Saudi medicinal schools has been expanded in the pre-vious couple of years, and this may influence specialty decision [7].
The inclination of specialties picked by medicinal graduates has a critical influence later on the workforce in the health-care framework, particularly in times of over or undersupply of special-ists [8]. A student with an intrinsic bent for a specific specialty might be pulled in to another spe-cialty in view of mainstream observation or money-related reasons. An assessment of the varia-bles which impact claim to specialty decisions would help forestall such confuses at the national and provincial levels and furthermore go about as a manual for help students make profession inclinations in view of their aptitudes [9].
There is need to discover what spurs the students to take up the certain specialty of their choice so that to adjust in medicinal specialists among different specialties is kept up. The present study was designed to investigate factors influencing career choice among medical students interested in ORL at Faculty of Medicine, KAU, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
| Materials and Methods | | |
The present cross-sectional study was accomplished at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, among the 4th, 5th and 6th year medical students. The questionnaire was distribut-ed to 531 students during classes in the academic year [appendix 1]. The students were given the questionnaire by the survey team and made a request to submit the completed surveys to the sur-vey team. Participation in this survey was totally willful, and confidentiality was kept at all circumstances as no distinguishing data were recorded in the study’s results.
The first part of the questionnaire included general questions like gender, GPA, ORL rotation score, attitude and interest towards the ORL specialty. The second part of the questionnaire in-cluded specific questions of specialty to assess the opinion of the participants in the survey. The questions were on five-point Likert scale as strongly agree, agree, natural, disagree and strongly disagree. The last part of questionnaire included 19 questions to assess the perceptions of the student choosing or considering choosing ORL compared with another specialty. The questions were on the five-point scale such as very important, important, natural, not important and do not know the format. The questions included: career opportunities, academic opportunities, experience in core-rotations / sub-internship, length of the training in residency, lifestyle during residency, work hours during residency, ability to obtain residency positions, on-call schedule, life style after residency training, work hours after residency training, financial reward of this specialty, scope of private practice, intellectual challenges, patient\doctor relationship, prestige, patient demographics, gender distribution in specialty, general patient prognosis and role model in the specialty. The data were analyzed using the SPSS- 16 software.
| Results | | |
Of total 531 participants in the study, 238 (44.8%) were males, and 293 (55.2%) were females. The participants of this study belonged to 4th, 5th and 6th years; there were 211 (39.7%) from the fourth year, 185 (34.83%) from the fifth year, 162 (30.5%) from the sixth year and other charac-teristics of the participants are shown in [Table 1]. The preliminary response indicated that 42% of the participated students showed interest in pursuing a career in ORL. Of that 42% interested in the specialty, 72% were still interested after taking ORL rotation in 4th year medical school. And of the 58% who were initially not interested, 15% showed interest in the specialty after taking the rotation but only 56 (10.5%) had ever attended an ORL Conference. Almost all of the stu-dents (95%) agreed that a patient’s ear, nose, throat, and head & neck health plays an important role in their overall health. The majority of the participants (68%) disagreed that ORL is less im-portant than other specialties [Table 2].
There were several reasons for selecting ORL as career choice such as: a secured and respected job (71%), rewarding work, grateful patients (69%), opportunity to meet people of different age groups and various backgrounds (68%), well-paid job (63%), comprehensive doctor-patient rela-tionships (54%), versatile, challenging work (54%), a gate into ordinary people’s everyday life (52%), and long-term doctor-patient relationships (58%) [Table 3]. | Table 3: Participants' responses regarding factors influencing their choice for selecting ORL as a career.
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On the other hand, 48.4% of the participants agreed that one of the unattractive features when choosing ORL is routine and tedious work, where most of other factors listed were evenly dis-tributed among (agree/natural/disagree). Such as, long-term doctor-patient relationships with demanding patients, dealing with nonmedical problems, hasty and pressing work, work too chal-lenging and difficult, and too much responsibility. However, a significant number of participants did not agree that lonely work or poor pay can be factors influencing them to rethink pursuing in ORL as a career.
| Discussion | | |
In our study, the majority of the participants (68%) disagreed that that ORL is less important than other specialties [Table 2]. It means they accept the importance of the ORL and like this specialty. In another study by Hauer, et al., (2008) it was observed that second most usually cho-sen specialty were surgical subspecialties including ORL (13.8%). (10) They also reported that almost all of the students (95%) agreed that a patient’s ear, nose, throat, and head & neck health plays an important role in their overall health [10].
An imperative point of undergraduate medical training is to deliver doctors who might in the long run additional experience, preparing to wind up a specialist in different fields of clinical medicine. The accessibility of specialists to fill the different fields relies upon accessibility of preparing vacancies. But essentially it likewise relies on the decision of the specialty by the competitor. Some clinical specialties are favored over the others for different reasons ([11]. Our study observed several reasons for selecting ORL as career choice such as: a secured and re-spected job (71%), well-paid job (63%), rewarding work, grateful patients (69%) [Table 3].
Many factors impact the specialty decisions of medical undergraduates and therapeutic profes-sionals. These elements run from individual qualities, for example, age, gender and kind of iden-tity, the snapshot of decision, components of impact and good examples, to the attributes of the forte itself. For example, the sorts of issues and individuals experienced and served in the prac-tice, the proceeding with the advancement of new advances, and the expectation of strength re-lated wage [12]. Opportunity to meet people of different age groups and various backgrounds (68%), a window into ordinary people’s everyday life (52%) are important findings of our study.
According to Nemri, et al., (2015), these factors include: substantial work stack, exceptional working pressure, bring down pay rates, medical coverage payment framework, logical difficul-ties and collaboration with patients. The scientific challenge (61.4%) and interaction with pa-tients (60.6%) appear to be the major affecting variables for most specialties inclinations [13].
A study found different reasons for selection of career choices, like postings in the first hospi-tal and dialogue with peers were the important factors that influenced their career choice [14]. Contrasting to our results a study from Kenya that only 9% of the final year medical students want to select the ORL as a career choice. They also reported that most of factors that influence our participants career choice were not present among their participants [15]. Similar to our results a recent study reported that similar reasons for selecting career choice in different disci-plines of clinical sciences, moreover, the female students were more inclined towards non-surgical disciplines [16].
In another study conducted by AI-Faris, et al (1996) at our institution (KAU) it was observed that the most, as often as possible, picked specialty by the medical students was Internal Medi-cine for 17.4% of the students, trailed by Surgery (16.2%), Pediatrics (14.2%) and Obstetrics and Gynecology (10.7%). It is imperative that a substantial extent (26.5%) of the students had not chosen their future career at the season of the review. While primary health care was picked by 1.6%. The order of specialty inclination among men was General Surgery (21.5%), Internal Medicine (18.8%), and Pediatrics (14.7%); be that as it may, the claims to fame mainstream with ladies were Obstetrics and Gynecology (20.2%), Internal Medicine (15.4%) and Pediatrics (13.5%) [17].
Our study has also observed comprehensive doctor-patient relationships (54%), versatile, challenging work (54%), and long-term doctor-patient relationships (58%) as important factors adopting ORL [Table 2]. This is in accordance with a study by Alshahrani et al,(2014) conduct-ed to find the factors influencing the choice of a future specialty among the medical students. It was found that lifestyle was picked by 168 (44.7%) members as the most persuasive factor in their decision of a future specialty, trailed by sub specialty decisions in 49 (13%) members and clinical rotation involvement in 43 (11.4%) members. Medical Interns considered life style as a vital factor contrasted and medical students and it was discovered measurably huge [18].
According to a study by Abdulghaniet al., (2013) less than half of the students (40.2%) demon-strated a future specialty inclination. Senior students and having foundation about the specialties were the huge factor for career decisions. General Surgery (27.4%), ORL-Ophthalmology (24.6%) and Internal Medicine (22%) were favored fortes. Male students favored General Sur-gery (15.7%), Internal Medicine (15%), ORL, Ophthalmology (12%) and Orthopedics (9.1%). Female students indicated enthusiasm for ORL-Ophthalmology (12.1%), Surgery (11.7%), Pedi-atrics (10.8%) and Dermatology (8.2%). The lowest well- known specialties were Community Medicine, (6.6%), Anesthesia, (6%) and Forensic Medicine (4.6%). Obstetrics and Gynecology (Ob/Gyne) was a less well-known specialty even in female students [19].
There are several limitations to our study like small sample size, the study is conducted in med-ical faculty of a single university, and it’s a questionnaire-based study so there is possibility of biases in participants’ choice. Thus, our findings cannot be generalized.
| Conclusions | | |
According to our study, 42% of the respondents were interested in ORL, however, 94% of overall participants strongly agree/agree that a patient’s ear, nose, throat and head &neck health plays an important role in their overall health. In our study, it was observed that the main factors influencing profession decision of medical students are; secured and respected job, rewarding work, grateful patients and opportunity to meet people of different age groups. On the other hand, 48% of the respondents in our study agreed that routine and tedious work is one of the main unattractive features influencing medical students to rethink the decision of working as an ORL specialist in the future, Pre-graduates should be provided with career counseling to aid them in their decisions regarding choice of specialty. Further studies are recommended to ex-plore the other factors.
Disclaimer
This paper was presented on the 23rd Saudi ORL Annual Conference, on April 20th - 21st, 2017 held in Albaha Province.
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[Table 1], [Table 2], [Table 3]
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