Abstract

Background: Specialty choice is not a simple decision, but phenomena of the interconnection of student expectation, department expectation, and specialty competition for available cadres and student preference rely on where the choice begins. The aim of the study was to examine the factors that influenced the choice of orthopedic surgery specialty among medical interns in Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted targeting all medical interns in all accessible hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The data were collected from the interns using a pre-structured online questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher after intensive literature review and expert consultations. The questionnaire covered the interns’ sociodemographic data, grade point average (GPA), and clinical rotation
data. The second section covered all factors that contribute to intern’s preference for medical specialty including orthopedic specialty.
Results: The survey included 103 medical interns whose ages ranged from 23 years to 29 years with the mean age of 24.8 ± 1.0 years. Male residents were 55.3% of the total. With regard to specialty preference, 82.5% of the residents choose their specialty of interest. A general surgery was the first specialty of interest among 11.8% of the residents, followed by pediatrics (11.8%), internal medicine (9.4%), and family medicine (8.2%). Orthopedics was the first specialty of interest among 7.1% of the residents only. As for factors behind specialty preference, self-satisfaction was the most recorded factor (77.7%) followed by direct interaction with patient/family (60.2%).
Conclusions: In conclusion, the current study revealed that interns’ specialty preferences mainly started during internship mainly after clinical rotation which declares many of the specialties characteristics, lifestyle, and hazards. Orthopedic specialty preference was not common, especially among females.

Key words: Specialty preference, medical interns, orthopedic surgery, factors influencing, specialty selection