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Abstract
Background: Medical field has experienced a
constant rise in the induction of female students in
medical colleges across the globe. This makes their
future career preferences highly significant as they
are ultimately going to shape out the fate of various
specialties. Keeping in view the prevailing trend of
gender distribution in medical colleges of the whole
country, it will not be wrong to say that females have
become the stake holders of the future of the health
care in Pakistan. Thereby, it is the need of the hour
to chalk out the future preferences of these female
medical students
Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study
which was done on 150 female medical students of
3rd, 4th and final year MBBS of Rawalpindi Medical
University. Data was collected with the help of a
questionnaire on which variables such as age, year of
study, parents' occupation, plan and reason of going
abroad, plan and reason of studying in Pakistan and
preferable field for specialization were entered. Data
was analysed by using Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 respectively are the
specialties of choice among female medical students
of RMU. Career counselling sessions should be
organized and admission policy can be changed to
prevent overcrowding of one field and tailor needs
of the country.
Results: The study showed that among 93.3% of the
respondents who were interested in doing postgraduation 61.4% wanted to stay in Pakistan and
38.6% wanted to go abroad. The most frequently
opted field of specialty was Medicine (39.3%)
followed by Surgery (28%) and Gynaecology and
Obstetrics (22%)
Conclusion: Our study concluded that medicine,
followed by surgery and gynaecology and obstetrics
Key words: graduate education, female medical
students, career choice