Abstract

Background: The pursuit of a medical profession requires rigorous study and a precise choice of a specialty. The study of students’ inclination and preferences toward various specializations such as pediatrics, surgery, cardiology, gynecology, gastroenterology, and neurology is useful. It is speculated that this preference is influenced by gender, interest, the current year, and college Category (i.e. government or private) of the undergraduate.

Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was carried out from July -2019 to Jan- 2020 In first to third year undergraduate (MBBS). Data from 588 questionnaires was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21.0, Shapiro-Wilk test, modified Schwartz Method and Chi square test. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Top trended specialties of the survey were pediatrics, surgery, cardiology, gynecology and neurology. Surgery was in the leading trend for specialization irrespective of gender or the Category of college. The primary reason for the specialty selection was personal interest.

Conclusion: Results have depicted that surgery is a well preferred and admired specialty on Medical undergraduates. The choice of Internal medicine as a specialty is common to both Genders: however, female’s preference is more oriented in pediatrics and gynecology.

Keywords: Medical students, Specialization, Medical institute, Specialty selection