MEDICAL GRADUATES?

Abstract

A universal challenge faced by developing countries these days is the inequitabledistribution of health professionals, which compromises the capacity of the health system todeliver efficient and effective health care. Availability of reliable data on medical graduatesis important for health planning and development of policies and plans dealing with healthworkforce labour market. Objectives: To determine the proportion of medical graduates whoremained affiliated with the profession three to six years after graduation from a private medicalschool, To find out the specialty selection and practice location of these graduates, and todetermine the association between their gender and affiliation with the profession. Methods:A cross-sectional study was undertaken at the Lahore Medical & Dental College from March toMay 2014 selecting graduates through convenience sampling. The graduates were contactedthrough e-mail, Facebook and telephone. After obtaining voluntary informed consent fromthe respondents, a pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect information.Thedata was recorded and analysed using the statistical package for social sciences version 16.0.Chi-square test is used to test statistical significance between respondent’s gender and theiraffiliation with the medical profession at p < 0.05. Results: A large proportion 98(88%) ofmedical graduates remained affiliated with the profession. Those who didn’t pursue it were allfemales (p < 0.05). Majority 86(88%) were located in Pakistan. A greater proportion worked inthe tertiary health care facilities 65(94%). The popular specialty being pursued was medicine24(24%). Conclusion: Female medical graduates should be provided opportunities for parttime work.Medical schools should provide early and prolonged exposure of students to primaryhealth care facilities, in order to increase their uptake of rural postings.