Department of Health Care Management and Health Economics, School of Health Management and Medical Informatics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Health Policy Research Center, Institute of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Iran J Med Sci. 2022 Jul;47(4):350-359. doi: 10.30476/ijms.2021.89938.2071.
The medical specialty choice of physicians directly affects the healthcare system, community wellbeing, and their own professional life. It is therefore important to identify its underlying factors to predict such medical career choices and to draw up a comprehensive evidence-based public health policy and health human resources planning. The present qualitative study aimed to identify these determinants of career choices through semi-structured interviews with medical doctors in the context of country-specific social and cultural characteristics.
The present qualitative study was carried out in 2019-2020 at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (Shiraz, Iran). The target population was medical students, junior doctors, and medical residents. The purposive sampling method was used to recruit the participants and sampling continued until data saturation, i.e., no new information could be extracted. Data were collected through individual, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the conventional content analysis method. Inductive thematic analysis was used to interpret the data based on which a thematic map was developed illustrating the factors influencing medical specialty preferences in Iran. Data trustworthiness was assessed according to the criteria proposed by Guba and Lincoln.
Analysis of the interview data resulted in three main themes and fourteen sub-themes. The main themes were "Personal determinants", "Career-related factors", and "Interpersonal influences". The most important sub-themes were personal interests, income, and prestige.
The determinants influencing the specialty preferences of Iranian medical doctors are identified. Our findings will facilitate the development of a comprehensive evidence-based public health policy, health human resources planning, and appropriate medical education policy.
医生的医学专业选择直接影响医疗体系、社区福利和他们自己的职业生活。因此，重要的是要确定其潜在因素，以预测这种医学职业选择，并制定全面的基于证据的公共卫生政策和卫生人力资源规划。本定性研究旨在通过与具有特定国家社会和文化特征的医生进行半结构化访谈来确定这些职业选择的决定因素。
本定性研究于 2019-2020 年在设拉子医科大学（伊朗设拉子）进行。目标人群是医学生、初级医生和住院医生。采用目的抽样法招募参与者，直到数据饱和（即无法提取新信息）为止。通过个人、面对面的半结构化访谈收集数据，并使用常规内容分析方法进行分析。采用归纳主题分析方法根据数据解释主题，制定影响伊朗医学专业偏好的因素主题图。根据 Guba 和 Lincoln 提出的标准评估数据可信度。
对访谈数据的分析产生了三个主要主题和十四个次要主题。主要主题是“个人决定因素”、“职业相关因素”和“人际影响”。最重要的子主题是个人兴趣、收入和声望。
确定了影响伊朗医生专业偏好的决定因素。我们的研究结果将有助于制定全面的基于证据的公共卫生政策、卫生人力资源规划和适当的医学教育政策。
