Article Sidebar
Published:
Apr 25, 2016Article Details
Copyright remains in the Author’s name. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial Works License. Authors are required to complete and sign an Author Agreement form that outlines Author and Publisher rights and terms of publication. The Agreement form should be uploaded along with other submissions files and any submission will be considered incomplete without it [forthcoming].
Material submitted for publication in the SAMJ is accepted provided it has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Please inform the editorial team if the main findings of your paper have been presented at a conference and published in abstract form, to avoid copyright infringement. The SAMJ does not hold itself responsible for statements made by the authors.
Previously published images
If an image/figure has been previously published, permission to reproduce or alter it must be obtained by the authors from the original publisher and the figure legend must give full credit to the original source. This credit should be accompanied by a letter indicating that permission to reproduce the image has been granted to the author/s. This letter should be uploaded as a supplementary file during submission.
Main Article Content
Where have all the doctors gone? Career choices of Wits medical graduates
Abstract
Design. A crosscsectional analysis of the register of what was then· the South African Medical and • Dental Council (SAMDC) and a telephone interview survey of a sample of medical graduates, collecting retrospective career histories.
Results. Thirty-six per cent of the sample was working predominantly in the public sector, while 47% of all years worked by graduates were in the public sector. Women graduates spent 68% oftheir years working in the public sector, compared with 36% for men. The majority (55%) of graduates in the sample who were working in the public sector cited academic and training aspects as the main reason for this choice. Conversely, nearly half (47%) gave income as the main reasonfor moving to the private sector. Forty per cent of graduates had.specialised .(46%.of men,.22% of women), while 76% were working in the large urban areas.
Conclusions . The findings highlight methodological problems with standard cross-sectional analysis of distribution of personnel. They also challenge several assumptions about the likelihood of Wits graduates working as generalists (60%), the voluntary contribution of graduates to the public sector, and in particular the value of women doctors to public service and primary care.
