Decision-making process of changing major for medical students in a comprehensive university: a qualitative study

Abstract

Objective To explore the decision-making process of medical students who turned the major from the medicine to other majors, and the related factors that hindered them continuing to study the medicine. Methods According to the design of interpretative phenomenon logical analysis, semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to collect the data. Participants were six undergraduate students who had moved from medical major to another major. Interviews were recorded on audio-tape with the students' per-mission and then transcribed verbatim. The transcribed interviews were analyzed according to six steps of in-terpretative phenomenological analysis. Results Even if the participants had left the medical major, they still expressed a strong sense of professional identity for the doctor. However, they also admitted that the pro-fessional process of medicine students was very hard and tired, and couldn't get the equal return for their payment. They thus were lack of confidence for the future. Some of the participants talked about the fact that they had been curious about the future of medical students. Internet and seniors were the main avenues for obtaining job-related information, but they were often plagued by the negative information. Education about career adaptation should be carried out as soon as possible, to strengthen the professional identity of medical students, and enhance their ability to defend against negative information, which could help to deal with the status of high turnover rate for medical students. Conclusion Based on the students' perspective, exploring the decision-making process of turning major for medical students will contribute to the educators taking ef-fective strategies to improve the students' career identity, stabilize their professional thought, and reduce the loss of the medical students. Key words: Medical students; Changing major; Decision process; Qualitative study