Medical profession is frequently opted by able students from different family backgrounds as it offers a noble, revered and financially stable career. The choice made by medical students regarding their career specialty is not only an important decision for their future but it also affects the availability and the quality of services the country’s health system is able to provide. The aim of this study was to know the career preferences of medical interns and study some related factors. Present descriptive cross sectional study was carried out on 236 medical interns of a tertiary care institute in Nagpur .All the study subjects wanted to pursue post-graduation. However, only 49(20.76%) study subjects wanted to pursue specialization in pre and paraclinical subjects. Medicine, Paediatrics, Surgery and Obstetrics & Gynaecology were the four clinical specialities most opted by the medical interns. Higher proportion of females as compared to males opted for specialisation in Pediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynaecology and this difference was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). Also significantly higher proportion of males had inclination towards specialisation in Surgery and Orthopedics as compared to their female counterparts (p<0.05).Important reasons for opting clinical specialities were high income potential, reputation of specialities, individual interest and intellectual content of specialities. Factors influencing choice of pre/ paraclinical specialities were fixed working hours, job security, more time for family & friends & lesser work pressure.

Keywords: Career preferences, medical interns, related factors.

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Dr Sarita K. Sharma

Associate Professor, Government Medical College, Nagpur

403, Tower- F, Godrej Anandam, Ganeshpeth, Nagpur, 440012, India

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