Secondary employment and its role in obtaining higher medical education

Abstract

The study objective is to examine the structure and characteristics of secondary employment of medical university students. The authors carry out a survey of students of Omsk State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Russia by continuous questionnaire survey technique. The questions of the questionnaire were aimed at socio-demographic identification of students. 2 330 (59,6 %) respondents participated in the survey of 3 906 students studying in the organization. According to the survey results 24,7 % (576) of students of OSMU work in their free time, while 12,6 % (294) work in medical sphere. Employed students are more common among married respondents compared to unmarried ones (55,9 and 29,1 % respectively, χ2 = 55.53, p < 0.001, Pearson). There is a growing trend in the proportion of employed students from the 1st year to 5th year (11,9 and 41,8 %, respectively). The same dynamics is revealed in the proportion of employed respondents in medicine (4,4 and 28,8 %, respectively). Respondents studying at the Preventive Medicine Department are employed in the medical field significantly less likely than other departments (χ2 = 30,04, p < 0.001, Pearson). The share of employed OSMU students increases while moving up the educational ladder. At the same time, employed students are 2 times more common among married students. The proportion of employed students of the Faculty of Dentistry of the 3rd and 5th yersis much higher compared to other faculties. Medical and Preventive Faculty students show the lowest rates with respect to employment in the medical field in their free time.