Comparison between Final-Year Medical Students' Career Choices before and after the Conduction of a Mentorship Activity

Abstract

Background: The elective specialty's selection significantly impacts the graduates' acceptance rate in a preferable postgraduate specialty training program. This selection has a multifactorial nature of the decision-making process that worries the undergraduate students and alters their academic lives. Objective: This study aimed to assess final-year undergraduate medical students' specialty choices before and after the conduction of a mentorship activity. Methods: The mentorship activity was organized in the academic year 2019–2020 to help the 71 final-year medical students choose their preferred future specialty. Two self-reported pre- and postactivity surveys, including demographics, the chosen specialty, location, factors that influenced their top-ranked choices, needs/feedback about the activity, were used. Results: Sixty-six female students, with a mean age of 23.5 ± 0.8 years, participated in mentoring activity, with a response rate of 92.95%. Most of the participants (73%) decided to be trained in one local residency training program. Surgery (31.8%) and family medicine (28.8%) were the most popular specialties. Personal interest (88%) was endorsed as the most influential factor influencing their choices. The internship mentoring activity significantly increased participants' ability to choose the elective training specialty (P < 0.012) but did not substantially affect the future training selected places (P < 0.6). Conclusion: Professional medical training has various challenges at serial phases, and university mentoring activities should be tailored to meet students' desires and the need of the professional society.