Career choice motivations of medical students and some characteristics of the decision process in Hungary

• Authors: Regina Molnár , Tibor Nyári , Anikó Hazag , Adriána Csinády , Péter Molnár
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The changed circumstances of medical work, raises the question of how socio-economic changes over the last few decades has affected the professional socialisation of medical students. This paper explores the career choice motivations of medical students, as well as some characteristics of the process of making that choice and their effects on professional socialisation. The study was carried out with a self-administered questionnaire with 503 students in general medicine, randomly selected from two Hungarian Medical Schools. More than half of the students contemplated becoming a doctor as early as in their childhood. Their final decision was typically made in high school. Significant differences can be demonstrated in professional socialisation between those individuals identifying with the profession in early childhood and others turning to the profession later. Altruistic motivations were the most significant career choice reasons. In conclusions, the medical career choice must have deeper roots, yielding to an evolutionary psychological analysis as well, one aspect of which is altruism.

Keywords

EN

Altruism; Early decision; Medical students; Medical education; Motivation; Professional socialisation

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Open Medicine
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 494-502

Dates

published

1 - 12 - 2008

online

22 - 10 - 2008

Contributors

author

Regina Molnár

• Department of Public Health, Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical and Pharmaceutical Centre, University of Szeged, 6720, Szeged, Hungary

author

Tibor Nyári

• Department of Medical Informatics, Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical and Pharmaceutical Centre, University of Szeged, 6720, Szeged, Hungary

author

Anikó Hazag

• Faculty of Health Scienses, Semmelweis University, 1088, Budapest, Hungary

author

Adriána Csinády

• Department of Behavioural Sciences, University of Debrecen, 4012, Debrecen, Hungary

author

Péter Molnár

• Department of Behavioural Sciences, University of Debrecen, 4012, Debrecen, Hungary

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s11536-008-0063-5