Abstract

Background: Medical profession has been the choice of best minds from various family backgrounds as it offers an acclaimed and financially secure career. An undergraduate medical student has to pass through 4½ years of rigorous teaching and training followed by a year of internship before he/she is awarded the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree. After MBBS, it becomes a tough decision to decide the future course of the career. Changing economic and social panorama in India has opened new gates and made this decision a mammoth task.
Objective: The study was conducted with the objective to study sociodemographic profile of the medical students of College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, Kolkata, and to study career aspiration and its determinants among the medical students of College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, Kolkata.
Materials and Methods: A cross- sectional study was carried out among medical students of Sagore Dutta Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, India, during October and December 2015. A total of 152 final year medical students were included in the study. A pre-tested and pre-designed self-administered questionnaire was used as the study tool. Data were analyzed with SPSS IBM software version 21.0. Means and proportions were calculated.
Results: Majority of the students were in the age group of 18-20 years. Two-third of the students were from urban background. Self-interest and passion constituted the major reason (66.5%) to choose MBBS as a career. Nearly 95.4% of the students were willing to pursue their postgraduation. Majority (40.8%) preferred medicine or its allied specialty subjects. Only 16.5% wanted to go for public sector and only 7.9% wanted to work in rural area. Conclusion: Having understood the wants of the current generation of medical graduates, appropriate packages of monetary and non-monetary incentives need to be designed to encourage them to work in rural and remote areas. Only then, the goal of Universal Health Coverage may be achieved.