Future career aspiration and specialty choices among undergraduate medical students of a medical college in Jammu and Kashmir, India – A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Medical education requires an undergraduate medical student to study a wide range of medical specialties. The number of postgraduation specialties as well as carrier options after graduation has increased in recent years. Hence, we sought to identify the postgraduation specialty choices, factors influencing these choices, and future carrier aspirations.Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study. Pretested self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS IBM software version 20.Results: Majority were in the age group of above 20. Nearly 16.6% of the students' fathers and 5.9% of the students' mothers were having professional education. About 47.6% prefer medicine or its allied specialty subjects. About 43.4% wanted a job in the public sector and 30.8% wanted to adopt the private sector.Conclusion: Postgraduate specialty choices are still traditional with the majority preferring clinical subjects and wanted to settle in an urban area with a public sector job.