Almulhim Abdulmohsen, Thirunavukkarasu Ashokkumar, Alanazi Bader, Alfaleh Abdulrahman Saleh, Alreshidi Shaker O, Almusib Rana Bandar A, Alfaleh Lubna Abdulrazaq Zaal
Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, Jouf University, Saudi Arabia, P.O. Box-72388, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia.
BMC Med Educ. 2024 Dec 18;24(1):1453. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-06496-7.
The present survey aimed to explore northern Saudi medical students' perceptions and sociodemographic influencing factors in choosing ophthalmology as a career specialty to determine if they are in alignment with the health sector transformation program of the Vision 2030 initiative.
This study was conducted among 384 medical students from two universities in northern Saudi Arabia (KSA). We used a standard and validated questionnaire to collect the required data. The perception aspect consisted of 20 questions divided into five subdomains: personal and lifestyle factors, residency program aspects, patients' care, work culture, and financial factors. We used binomial logistic regression to find sociodemographic predictors for choosing ophthalmology as the first choice.
The present study demonstrated that northern Saudi medical students preferred ophthalmology as the second most preferred specialty (11.2%). Among the motivational factors, the most frequently reported was the influence of faculty members from their college (74.2%), followed by financial aspects (74%) and family and friends (73.7%). The preference to choose ophthalmology was significantly higher among female gender (ref: male, AOR = 2.63, 95% CI = 1.39-4.88, p = 0.001) and students with a GPA of 4.6 and above (ref: GPA less than 3.5, AOR = 3.77, 95% CI = 2.99-5.36, p = 0.023).
Northern Saudi medical students' preference for ophthalmology aligns with Vision 2030 goals. Therefore, it is essential to tailor strategies by policymakers to the medical students according to the identified sociodemographic influencing factors. Furthermore, we recommend prospective studies across all the regions of KSA to identify regional variations.
本次调查旨在探究沙特阿拉伯北部医学生在选择眼科作为职业专业时的看法及社会人口学影响因素，以确定这些因素是否与“2030愿景”倡议中的卫生部门转型计划相一致。
本研究在沙特阿拉伯北部（沙特阿拉伯王国）两所大学的384名医学生中开展。我们使用了一份标准且经过验证的问卷来收集所需数据。看法方面由20个问题组成，分为五个子领域：个人及生活方式因素、住院医师培训项目方面、患者护理、工作文化和财务因素。我们使用二项逻辑回归来找出将眼科作为首选的社会人口学预测因素。
本研究表明，沙特阿拉伯北部医学生将眼科选为第二受青睐的专业（11.2%）。在激励因素中，最常提及的是所在学院教师的影响（74.2%），其次是财务方面（74%）以及家人和朋友（73.7%）。女性（参照：男性，调整后比值比[AOR]=2.63，95%置信区间[CI]=1.39 - 4.88，p = 0.001）和平均绩点（GPA）为4.6及以上的学生（参照：GPA低于3.5，AOR = 3.77，95% CI = 2.99 - 5.36，p = 0.023）选择眼科的偏好明显更高。
沙特阿拉伯北部医学生对眼科的偏好与“2030愿景”目标一致。因此，政策制定者有必要根据已确定的社会人口学影响因素，为医学生量身定制策略。此外，我们建议在沙特阿拉伯王国所有地区开展前瞻性研究，以确定地区差异。
