Attitude of final year medical students towards community medicine in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Several studies were conducted in the past in Nigerian Universities to determine undergraduate medical students’ attitudes, aspirations and career preference but none was conducted in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. This study was undertaken to determine final year medical students’ attitudes toward Community Medicine.
Methodology: The study was cross-sectional and descriptive in design. A total of 94 graduating medical students during the 2006/2007 academic session were invited to participate in the study. All the 94 students were given self-administered structured and closed-ended questionnaire. We collected information on socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, general and specific attitudes towards Community Medicine (CM), class attendance in Community Medicine, and choice of CM as a
field for future specialization.

Result: Seventy-two students (76.7%) have made up their minds to specialize in a chosen field of Medicine while fourteen (14.4%) were undecided. Thirty-five (48.69%) students said they could specialize in CM while 19(26.4%) cannot. Of the clinical discipline for possible specialization in the future by the whole class, 32(34.0%) respondents declared to specialize in Obstetrics & Gynecology, 18(19.1%) in Community Medicine 11 (11.7%) in surgery.

Conclusion: Our finding demonstrated that final year medical student favorably perceived community medicine as a future career.