Saleh Raisa, Martins Russell Seth, Saad Muhammad, Fatimi Asad Saulat, Kumar Gaurav, Abbas Manzar, Akbar Inaara, Jehanzeb Hamzah, Ladak Shamila, Kaleem Shamama, Nadeem Sarah
Medical College, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
Society for Promoting Innovation in Medicine (SPIE), Center for Innovation in Medical Education (CIME), Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2022 Sep;81:104219. doi: 10.1016/j.amsu.2022.104219. Epub 2022 Aug 7.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the lives of healthcare workers due to the frontline nature of their work. Their hard work and sacrifice have forged new perceptions of healthcare workers. These changes may potentially influence students' interest in medicine. This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected premedical students' decisions to pursue medicine as a career.
A cross-sectional study using a self-designed online questionnaire was carried out amongst pre-medical students across Pakistan.
A total of 1695 students from 93 public and private schools filled in the survey. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly more pre-medical students want to pursue medicine (60.7%-62.9%) and less are unsure (20.2%-17%). Students are significantly more likely to be motivated to pursue medicine due to altruistic benefits to society (57% vs. 62.7%) and be deterred by the risk of contracting infections on duty (10%-14.6%). There is a minor but significant increase in the popularity of internal medicine (17.1%-18.9%), public health (4.1% vs. 5.7%), emergency medicine (3.8% vs. 5.7%), pediatrics (3.8% vs. 4.7%), and radiology (2.1% vs. 2.9%). Most pre-medical students felt that doctors routinely undergo physical and emotional turmoil (84%).
Although awareness of hardships faced by medical professionals has increased, motivation to pursue medicine has grown. Through understanding trends in the motivations of students to pursue medicine, medical schools can accommodate the expectations of incoming students and reach out to potential applicants.
由于工作性质处于一线，新冠疫情对医护人员的生活产生了重大影响。他们的辛勤工作和牺牲塑造了对医护人员的新认知。这些变化可能会潜在地影响学生对医学的兴趣。本研究探讨了新冠疫情如何影响医学预科学生从事医学职业的决定。
在巴基斯坦各地的医学预科学生中开展了一项使用自行设计的在线问卷的横断面研究。
来自93所公立和私立学校的1695名学生填写了调查问卷。新冠疫情爆发后，明显更多的医学预科学生想要从事医学（60.7%-62.9%），而不确定的学生减少（20.2%-17%）。学生因对社会的利他益处而更有动力从事医学的可能性显著增加（57%对62.7%），并因工作中感染的风险而受到阻碍（10%-14.6%）。内科（17.1%-18.9%）、公共卫生（4.1%对5.7%）、急诊医学（3.8%对5.7%）、儿科学（3.8%对4.7%）和放射学（2.1%对2.9%）的受欢迎程度有小幅但显著的上升。大多数医学预科学生认为医生经常经历身体和情绪上的动荡（84%）。
尽管对医学专业人员面临的困难的认识有所增加，但从事医学的动力也增强了。通过了解学生从事医学的动机趋势，医学院可以满足即将入学的学生的期望，并接触潜在的申请者。
