Determinants of Specialty Choice amongst Resident Doctors in Lagos

Abstract

Background: Despite the long term effect of specialization choices by doctors, on the efficiency of healthcare delivery, consideration is not often given to under-served fields. The distribution of resident doctors across specialties will subsequently determine the balance and adequacy of healthcare provision in the future.
Objective: To evaluate the factors that influence choice of specific specialties and to make recommendations targeted at meeting the medical specialist manpower needs of the populace.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of resident doctors at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos conducted in March 2014 using a self-administered, structured questionnaire. Data collected included biodata and important factors that influenced choice and analyzed.
Results: There were 100(57.1%) males and 74 (42.3%) with age ranging from 26 to 45 years with a mean of 31.8 ± 0.3 years and a median of 31 years. The commonest areas of interest by the time of graduation, from medical school were the core clinical specialties of surgery 19(10.9%), paediatrics 17 (9.7%), obstetrics and gynaecology 11(6.2%) and internal medicine 3(1.7%). The factors that were rated to be very important in influencing specialty choice include availability of more time for family, leisure and vacation 81(46.3%), high intellectual content 67(38.3%), clinic based practice 66(37.7%), employment opportunity 62(35.4%), opportunity to operate 61(34.9%) and good financial prospects 58(33.1%).
Conclusion: The preferred specialties are the core clinical specialties with the females showing less interest in the surgical specialties. The opportunity to operate and decreased workload are the most important predictors.

Keywords: Determinants; Specialty choice; Resident doctors