Major theme | Sub theme | Representative quote |
---|---|---|
Facilitators for students’ specialty career preferences | 1. Controlled lifestyle preference | “I feel like psychiatrists have better working hours, surgeons are called in at 2 am because a patient has gone into cardiac arrest or a mother has gone into labour.”(Female FGD) |
2. Assurance of a good life | “I think all of us would want to go to those specialties, even the trivial ones. As long as a good life is guaranteed we would like to serve.” (Male FGD) | |
3. Inspirational specialists | “Dr. Ya makes you feel like you are on the same level with her. If you do not know the answer Y says “Let us google”. Dr Y does not make you feel like you are stupid or so inefficient...”(Female FGD) | |
Barriers to students’ specialty career preferences | 1. Inadequate exposure | “I think the challenge there is the duration we spend or the duration we are given. You cannot tell me to go to anesthesia for one week yet it has 5 credit units. I have to learn and understand because we are going to manage human beings.” (Mature entrant FGD) |
2. Lack of career guidance | “So yes I have never thought of it as a career choice because no one ever put it forth and showed us how good it can be.” (Male FGD). | |
3. Perceived low financial status of the specialists | “… I could not consider the specialty because according to me, those people do not look happy. The way I see them, I would not want to be like them.” (Males FDG) |