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Abstract
Background: To determine frequency of students
in Rawalpindi Medical University who would opt
for psychiatry as their future career. Along with that
we will determine the reasons which encourage or
discourage students from choosing Psychiatry.
Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study
was conducted at Rawalpindi Medical University,
including MBBS students of the five academic years.
All study participants were given a semi-structured
questionnaire. The data was entered and analyzed
using SPSS version 22 and all categorical variables
were expressed both as frequencies and percentages.
Results: Psychiatry was the third most common
career choice (10.2%) following Surgery (31.8%) and
Medicine (26%). However, trend of opting for
Psychiatry as a career specialty declined with the
advancing academic years. Majority of the
respondents who were in favor of Psychiatry had a
rural background and belonged to a high socio
economic group. Females (11.1%) were slightly more
inclined towards this specialty compared to their
males (7.8%). Among the reasons for choosing
Psychiatry as career specialty, the most common ones
were ‘’need to help people with mental illness’’
(89.8%), ‘’need for more Psychiatrists in Pakistan’’
(89.1%) and ‘’interest in the subject’’ (89.9%). Most
frequently opted reasons for not choosing this field
were ‘’don’t suit my temperament (68.4%)’’. ‘’can
negatively affect my mental health’’ (43.1%) and
‘’work is not clinical enough’’ (42.7%).
Conclusion: Students showed a stronger
inclination towards psychiatry as compared to their
peers in most countries worldwide. However, the
popularity of Psychiatry as a career choice declined
as the academic years progressed. This could be
attributed to a variety of factors including
experiencing clinical rotations in Psychiatry during
the undergraduate program and poor understanding
of the pathophysiology of psychiatric diseases.
Key Words: Student, career choice, psychiatry,
specialty