Tomorrows doctors - an early profile of our students

ABSTRACT

In planning for the training of medical personnel in a well ordered health service, it is important to determine the profile of those persons who enter the course of training and what effect, if any, this programme has on their subsequent choice of speciality. Work on this issue elsewhere indicates that the best time to begin gathering information about these factors is at the time of entry to medical school and before students are swayed by the course and by the opinions of their peers and teachers. This study was designed to explore why persons seek to become doctors and what factors influence different sub groups to select different specialities. It sets out to answer the following questions 1) What are the motivational factors influencing the students to study medicine? 2) What demographic and family background factors are related to these motivational factors? 3) What influence do these motivational factors have on future choice of speciality? A longitudinal study of all medical students from their first year in a 5-year curriculum was begun on the Mona and St. Augustine campuses by administration of a questionnaire at the start of the first year of study. This included structured questions on demographics, the motivation for making the decision to study medicine and the present choice of speciality. Confidentiality of the information collected will be assured by using student's identification numbers. This paper reports the preliminary data from one of the campuses. It focuses on motivational factors, speciality choices and concerns of the students about pursuing the medical programme at the UWI. It is hoped that this information and the results of longitudinal follow-up will help the Faculty to shape decisions about selection criteria for entrants and for designing and implementing the new curriculum (AU)