Career aspirations of house officers in Lagos, Nigeria

OBJECTIVE: To identify the career aspirations of interns (house officers) working in two hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria. METHODS: All house officers working in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the General Hospital, Ikeja were invited to participate in a cross sectional survey. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. RESULTS: Specialization choice was evident in 97.1% of the interns while they were undergraduates but this declined to 82.9% on qualifying, though chosen specialties did not vary much between both periods. The preferred specialties were surgery (18.1%), obstetrics and gynaecology (18.1%), paediatrics (9.5%) and dental sciences (10.5%). Doctors who were below the age of 26 years were significantly more likely to want to specialize than others (P=0.017). Furthermore, respondents who had no regrets about selecting medicine as a career were significantly more willing to specialize than others (P=0.013). The major reasons for wanting to specialize were interest in specialty (72.4%), job satisfaction (67.6%) and bright prospects in selected field (54.3%). However, 14.4% no longer wanted to practise medicine while 69% would have liked to leave Nigeria, mainly for the United States of America. Financial considerations were a major reason for both groups. CONCLUSION: Surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology continue to attract young doctors to the detriment of other specialties. Financial considerations are also a key determinant of with regard to place of future practice.