This is an outdated version published on 2022-04-05. Read the most recent version.

Clinical Elective Choices and Motivations for Future Career Specialty Selection of Medical School Trainees and Junior Doctors of the University of the West Indies, Jamaica

Authors

  • Jean Williams Johnson BSc (Hons) MB BS MSc DM (Emerg. Med), Postgrad Diploma Med Ed (Dundee), The Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2967-6453
  • Leohrandra Graham Bachelors of Basic Medical Science in Pharmacology, MSc in Biomedical Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4106-7386
  • Eric Williams BSc (Hons) MB BS MSc DM (Emerg. Med), The Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9206-7787
  • Colleen Campbell BSc MSc (Forensic Toxicology) MBBS, The University Hospital of the West Indies Mona, Kingston, Jamaica https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0304-0051
  • Nidhi Thomas MBBS, The University of the West Indies, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Jamaica Medical Students’ Association Standing Committee on Medical Education, International Federation of Medical Students' Associations, IFMSA https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5605-3054
  • Maxine Gossell-Williams BSc, MPhil, PhD, Section of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, The University of The West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4268-5960

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2021.1049

Keywords:

Electives, Medical students, Career choices, Medical specialty

Abstract

Background: Clinical electives provide opportunities toward future careers. This study aimed to examine whether students at the University of the West Indies used clinical electives to help with specialization choice and determine factors that influence trainee decisions for specialty training.

Methods: A cross-sectional prospective study was conducted between July 2019 and March 2020, at The University of the West Indies and the University Hospital of the West Indies involving senior medical students and junior doctors.  Paper questionnaires were administered using convenience sampling. Participants voluntarily agreed and were kept anonymous.

Results: 193 participants, aged 20 to 35 years, completed the questionnaire 133 (68.9%) females.  Preferred electives were internal medicine specialties (80, 41.5%), then surgical specialties (53, 27.5%). Sixty-four (33.2%) participants reported using electives to gain experience for their future career; other reasons included filling knowledge gaps (101, 52.3%) and repeating failed clerkships (19, 9.8%). Career preferences included surgery (75, 40.8%), internal medicine (41, 22.3%), anesthetics (20, 10.4%), and obstetrics & gynecology (18, 9.3%). Males showed preference for surgical specialties (p=0.002). Elective choice for determining career path significantly correlated with future likely specialty choice (likelihood ratio chi-square test (32)=98.37, p<0.001). Motivational factors that correlated significantly with future likely specialty choices were intellectual challenge (p=0.025), income (p=0.010), prestige (p=0.015) and working hours (p=0.012).

Conclusions: Of the participants surveyed, only 33.2% used clinical electives for their intended purpose of informing future career paths. Surgical specialties were the top selections for postgraduate training and intellectual challenge was the top motivational factor.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Hauer KE, Durning SJ, Kernan WN, Fagan MJ, Mintz M, O’Sullivan PS et al. Factors associated with medical students' career choices regarding internal medicine. JAMA. 2008 Sep 10;300(10):1154-64.

Navarro AM, Taylor AD, Pokorny AP. Three innovative curricula for addressing medical students' career development. Academic Medicine. 2011 Jan 1;86(1):72-6.

Baboolal NS, Hutchinson GA. Factors affecting future choice of specialty among first?year medical students of the University of the West Indies, Trinidad. Medical Education. 2007;41(1):50-6.

Jones MD, Yamashita T, Ross RG, Gong J. Positive predictive value of medical student specialty choices. BMC medical education. 2018 Dec;18(1):1-7.

Branday JM, Carpenter RA. The evolution of undergraduate medical training at the University of the West Indies, 1948-2008. West Indian Med J. 2008 Dec 1;57(6):530.

Andrews MA, Paolino ND, DeZee KJ, Hemann B. Perspective of the graduating medical student: the ideal curriculum for the fourth year of undergraduate medical education. Military medicine. 2016 Nov 1;181(11-12):e1455-63.

Van den Broek WS, Wijnen-Meijer M, Ten Cate O, Van Dijk M. Medical students' preparation for the transition to postgraduate training through final year elective rotations. GMS journal for medical education. 2017;34(5).

Marshall DC, Salciccioli JD, Walton SJ, Pitkin J, Shalhoub J, Malietzis G. Medical student experience in surgery influences their career choices: a systematic review of the literature. Journal of surgical education. 2015 May 1;72(3):438-45.

Alawad AA, Khan WS, Abdelrazig YM, Elzain YI, Khalil HO, Ahmed OB, Adam OA. Factors considered by undergraduate medical students when selecting specialty of their future careers. Pan African Medical Journal. 2015;20(1).

Lefevre JH, Roupret M, Kerneis S, Karila L. Career choices of medical students: a national survey of 1780 students. Medical Education. 2010;44(6):603-12.

Alshahrani M, Dhafery B, Al Mulhim M, Alkhadra F, Al Bagshi D, Bukhamsin N. Factors influencing Saudi medical students and interns’ choice of future specialty: a self-administered questionnaire. Advances in medical education and practice. 2014;5:397

Kanmounye US, Temgoua M, Endomba FT. Determinants of residency program choice in two central African countries: an internet survey of senior medical students. International Journal of Medical Students. 2020 Apr 30;8(1):20-5.

Ali A, Rasheed A, Zaidi SM, Alsaani SM, Naim H, Hamid H, Farrukh S. Recent Trend in Specialty Choices of Medical Students and House Officers from Public Sector Medical Universities, Karachi. JPMA. 2019 Apr;69(489).

Onyemaechi NO, Bisi?Onyemaechi AI, Omoke NI, Odetunde OI, Okwesili IC, Okwara BO. Specialty choices: Patterns and determinants among medical undergraduates in Enugu Southeast Nigeria. Nigerian journal of clinical practice. 2017;20(11):1474-80.

Rukewe A, Abebe WA, Fatiregun AA, Kgantshang M. Specialty preferences among medical students in Botswana. BMC research notes. 2017 Dec;10(1):1-5.

Dossajee H, Obonyo N, Ahmed SM. Career preferences of final year medical students at a medical school in Kenya–A cross sectional study. BMC medical education. 2016 Dec;16(1):1-10.

Aslam M, Ali A, Taj T, Badar N, Mirza W, Ammar A, Muzaffar S, Kauten JR. Specialty choices of medical students and house officers in Karachi, Pakistan. EMHJ-Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal. 2011; 17 (1):74-79.

Kumar, R., & Dhaliwal, U. Career choices of undergraduate medical students. The National medical journal of India. 2011;24(3):166-169.

AbouZaid L, Nabil N, Al-Fadil S, Alatmi A, Saeed AA. Career choice and its influencing factors: perception of senior medical students. J Contemp Med Educ. 2014;2(3):168-73.

Abdulrahman M, Makki M, Shaaban S, Al Shamsi M, Venkatramana M, Sulaiman N, Sami MM, Abdelmannan DK, Salih AM, AlShaer L. Specialty preferences and motivating factors: A national survey on medical students from five uae medical schools. Education for Health. 2016 Sep 1;29(3):231.

Yang Y, Li J, Wu X, Wang J, Li W, Zhu Y, Chen C, Lin H. Factors influencing subspecialty choice among medical students: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ open. 2019 Mar 1;9(3):e022097.

McCartney, T., Lee, M. G., Roberts, R., & SinQuee, C. (2019). Tracking Medical Graduates in Jamaica and The Bahamas. West Indian Medical Journal. 2019; 68(1):47-52.

Ng-Sueng LF, Vargas-Matos I, Mayta-Tristán P, Pereyra-Elías R, Montenegro-Idrogo JJ, Inga-Berrospi F, Ancalli F, Bonilla-Escobar F, Diaz-Velez C, Gutierrez-Quezada E, Gomez-Alhach J. Gender associated with the intention to choose a medical specialty in medical students: a cross-sectional study in 11 countries in Latin America. PloS one. 2016 Aug 12;11(8):e0161000.

Riska, E. Gender and medical careers. Maturitas. 2011; 68(3): 264-267.

Peel, J. K., Schlachta, C. M., & Alkhamesi, N. A. (2018). A systematic review of the factors affecting choice of surgery as a career. Canadian Journal of Surgery. 2018; 61(1):58-67.

Trinh, L. N., O'Rorke, E., & Mulcahey, M. K. Factors Influencing Female Medical Students’ Decision to Pursue Surgical Specialties: A Systematic Review. Journal of Surgical Education.2020;78(3):838-849.

van Tongeren-Alers, M., van Esch, M., Verdonk, P., Johansson, E., Hamberg, K., & Lagro-Janssen, T. Are new medical students’ specialty preferences gendered? Related motivational factors at a Dutch medical school. Teaching and learning in medicine.2011;23(3):263-268.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) /The World Bank. “Health Care Resources and Activities”, in Health at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2020. OECD Publishing, Paris. 2020.

Hur Y. Development of a career coaching model for medical students. Korean journal of medical education. 2016 Mar;28(1):127.

Farkas AH, Allenbaugh J, Bonifacino E, Turner R, Corbelli JA. Mentorship of US medical students: a systematic review. Journal of general internal medicine. 2019 Nov;34(11):2602-9.

Downloads

Published

2021-11-04 — Updated on 2022-04-05

Versions

How to Cite

Williams Johnson, J., Graham, L. ., Williams, E. ., Campbell, C., Thomas, N., & Gossell-Williams , M. (2022). Clinical Elective Choices and Motivations for Future Career Specialty Selection of Medical School Trainees and Junior Doctors of the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. International Journal of Medical Students, 10(1), 49–55. https://doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2021.1049

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2022)

Section

Original Article

Categories

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Jean Williams Johnson, Leohrandra Graham, Eric Williams, Colleen Campbell, Nidhi Thomas, Maxine Gossell-Williams

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site; with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
    2. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
    3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
    4. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
    5. The Author represents and warrants that:
      1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
      2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
      3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
      4. the Work has not previously been published;
      5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
      6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
    6. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from the Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Enforcement of copyright

The IJMS takes the protection of copyright very seriously.

If the IJMS discovers that you have used its copyright materials in contravention of the license above, the IJMS may bring legal proceedings against you seeking reparation and an injunction to stop you using those materials. You could also be ordered to pay legal costs.

If you become aware of any use of the IJMS' copyright materials that contravenes or may contravene the license above, please report this by email to contact@ijms.org

 

Infringing material

If you become aware of any material on the website that you believe infringes your or any other person's copyright, please report this by email to contact@ijms.org