Reasons for choosing medicine and career suitability among medical students
Choosing a course to pursue is an important decision for students to make. A suitable career should correspond to the students’ personalitiy for future work satisfaction and success. The objectives of this study were to determine the students’ reasons for choosing medicine, their personality trai...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2018
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20203/1/10_ms0174_pdf_21158.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20203/ https://www.medicineandhealthukm.com/toc/13/1 |
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| Summary: | Choosing a course to pursue is an important decision for students to make. A
suitable career should correspond to the students’ personalitiy for future work
satisfaction and success. The objectives of this study were to determine the students’
reasons for choosing medicine, their personality traits and aptitude (suitability).
This was a cross-sectional study involving all third-year medical students at
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia. A self-administered questionnaire was used, which
included questions on demographic data, Sidek Career Interest Inventory and
reasons for choosing medicine. The inventory was used to measure the students’
personality traits and career suitability. A total of 80 students participated in the
study. Majority of them were females (n=56, 70.0%). The findings showed that
45.7% (n=44) of the repondents chose medicine because of ‘passion and interest’,
while 24.7% (n=20) and 19.8% (n=16) because of ‘parental influence’ and ‘to help
the society’, respectively. For medicine, two personality traits are essential which
are investigative and social personality traits. Approximately, 47.5% (n=38) of the
respondents had high scores in investigative personality trait. However, only 13.8%
(n=11) of them had high scores in social personality trait. Only 12.5% (n=10) of
the students had high scores when combining both of the traits. Majority of the
students chose medicine for altruistic reasons. However, only a few of them had
suitable aptitude for this course namely investigative and social skill. Therefore,
the students and the teachers need to be aware of these issues and cultivate the
required skills in the students for better career outcome. |
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