Career choice of Saudi medical students: opting for ophthalmology residency programs - perceptions and sociodemographic influencing factors – a cross-sectional study in Northern Saudi Arabia

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Background and aimThe present survey aimed to explore northern Saudi medical students’ perceptions and sociodemographic influencing factors in choosing ophthalmology as a career specialty to determine if they are in alignment with the health sector transformation program of the Vision 2030 initiative.MethodsThis study was conducted among 384 medical students from two universities in northern Saudi Arabia (KSA). We used a standard and validated questionnaire to collect the required data. The perception aspect consisted of 20 questions divided into five subdomains: personal and lifestyle factors, residency program aspects, patients’ care, work culture, and financial factors. We used binomial logistic regression to find sociodemographic predictors for choosing ophthalmology as the first choice.ResultsThe present study demonstrated that northern Saudi medical students preferred ophthalmology as the second most preferred specialty (11.2%). Among the motivational factors, the most frequently reported was the influence of faculty members from their college (74.2%), followed by financial aspects (74%) and family and friends (73.7%). The preference to choose ophthalmology was significantly higher among female gender (ref: male, AOR = 2.63, 95% CI = 1.39–4.88, p = 0.001) and students with a GPA of 4.6 and above (ref: GPA less than 3.5, AOR = 3.77, 95% CI = 2.99–5.36, p = 0.023).ConclusionNorthern Saudi medical students’ preference for ophthalmology aligns with Vision 2030 goals. Therefore, it is essential to tailor strategies by policymakers to the medical students according to the identified sociodemographic influencing factors. Furthermore, we recommend prospective studies across all the regions of KSA to identify regional variations.