Motivation for and concerns about entering a medical programme: a Caribbean perspective

OBJECTIVE: To determine the motivation for and concerns about studying medicine, and future career plans of students of Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies (UWI). DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey that included year 1 medical students at both the Mona and St. Augustine medical schools of the UWI was conducted. A self-administered questionaire containing structured questions on demographics and family background, motivation for and concerns about studying medicine and future career preferences held by students at entrance into the course of study, was used to collect the data. RESULTS: A total of 228 students took part in the study, 103 from Mona and 125 from St. Augustine. Seventy-three percent of the students were between 18 and 22 years of age with 61 percent being females and 39 percent males. The students gave the highest rating to those motives best described as people-oriented. These included interest in relations between health, well-being and society and caring for and working with people. The female students scored significantly higher than the males for most of those motives. However, males rate the social prestige/status motive significantly higher than females. The greatest concern of the students was fear of failure. Surgical specialities (43 percent), family medicine (38 percent) and paediatrics (34 percent) were the top choices of the students for future specialty. However, significantly more males chose surgery while more females chose obstetrics.(AU)

Canadian ethnocultural communities facing AIDS: overview and summary of survey results from phase 111

This paper describes the survey results reporting demographic profiles, behaviours, opinions beliefs, attitudes and intentions related to condom use for three Canadian ethnocultural communities (Latin American, English-speaking Caribbean and South Asian) participating in the Ethnocultural Communities facing AIDS Study. Specific recommendations are presented for HIV-prevention programming based on the research results (AU).

Working women's sexual risk taking in Jamaica

Although the rates of HIV are increasing among female populations in developing countries, there is little information available about factors influencing sexual risk taking among working class women. This paper describes some of the issues discussed by two groups of 58 women working in Jamaica: Informal Commerical Importers and women working in the Free Zone. These women discuss their economic vulnerability, expectations about the role of men as provides, multiple partners, perception of children as resources and concern about physical abuse as factors that could influence decisions about condom use. The implications of these findings are discussed for their impact of intervention programs targeting working class women in Jamaica.(AU)

Show, no show and sterilization

The study investigates the factors involved in the decision of a sample of women to break appointments for sterilizations at the Fertility Management Unit of the University of the West Indies. A case control study involved 50 women who did not show up (no-shows) and an equal number who did show up (shows) over the same period. The no-shows had spent a shorter time in their current union than the shows, and some had no children for their partners at the time the appointments were made. Marriage was the single most important event that would encourage the no-shows to consider sterilization in the future. As long as poor women see child bearing as a precondition for financial assistance from spouses, they will hesitate to give up this capability (AU)

Critique of a study on ganja in Jamaica

In this study of "Ganja in Jamaica" by Rubin and Comitas, no significant differences between heavy ganja smokers and controls could be demonstrated in physical and psycological symptoms or social adjustment. This lack of difference may be attributed to methodological limitations in the sampling technique and examinations performed. The number of subjects studied was small (30 in both control and test group). The selection of controls was inadequate: only 12 controls had never smoked ganja, and 8 were current occasional users. Methodological limitations flawed the physical examinations of the lung and cardiovascular system, cytogenetic studies, psycological assessment and psychiatric evaluation. Acceptance by the authors of a positive motivational infleunce of cannabis smoking and other socially beneficial properties of such smoking by others in Jamaica and other countries. (AU)

Contraceptive use and desire for further children among working class Jamaican men in 1969

The research goal was to explore the conditions under which contraception is used in working class unions of different types, namely unions in which partners (a) lived together (b) lived apart. A number of variables which plausibly might directly or indirectly influence contraceptive use were identified, and an effort was made to test the influence exerted upon contraceptive use by these variables, through measuring the variables over a sample of 118 working class men and subsequently conducting a statistical analysis. In the statistical analysis reported here, the influence of the following variables was considered: (1) Number of children of 8 different types. (2) Union type - a special 7 category typology was used. (3) Male partner's desire for a further child. Three separate measures were used. (4) Male partner's affection for his sexual partner. (5) Sex of living children. (6) Number of current sexual partners. (7) Selected socioeconomic variables: specifically, occupation, income, residence

Suicide and the communication of rage: a cross-cultural case study

The author reports the study of 36 attempted suicides in Guyana, an emerging nation where suicide attempts are a major public health problem. The incidence of suicide is lower among persons of African descent, which reflect that there are a number of culturally sanctioned techniques for acting out hostile affects in this group. The East Indian, whithout a culturally accepted means for the discharge of aggression, can communicate his rage by directing it against himself (AU)