Early Online Factors that influence career choice among undergraduate health professions students
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Abstract
Background. The landscape of human resources in healthcare is shaped by students’ career choices, and a greater understanding of the process of career choice can help to build a better match between students’ preferences and specialist demands.
Objectives. To determine the preferred career paths of health professions students and the factors that influence their decisions in Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia.
Methods. This was a cross-sectional study conducted at eight health sciences schools in Qassim.
Results. The main factors that affected career choice were the availability of job vacancies in the career (64.6%), ambition regarding career development (53.9%), and working environment (34.7%). The favoured places in which health professions students hoped to work were government hospitals or health centres (84.9%) and military health services (37.6%). The main barriers that students thought could face them in their future careers were lack of training during their studies at the university (53.1%) and concerns about personal safety (23.6%).
Conclusion. The study highlights the factors that influenced career choices among health professions students, including job availability, career development opportunities, working environment and salary. These findings provide valuable insights for policy-makers and healthcare institutions to address challenges such as lack of previous training and concerns about personal safety, and create a supportive environment in which healthcare professionals can thrive.
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