[Career choice of ivorian medical students at the end of curriculum: influencing factors and aspirations].

Introduction: The implantation of health structures in Côte d'Ivoire to improve geographical accessibility to care remains unequal between rural and urban areas. The medical student has to decide on his or her career choice in this context, while also taking into account personal preferences. The aim of our study was to evaluate the factors influencing the speciality choice of medical students at the faculty of medicine of Félix Houphouët-Boigny University in Abidjan.

Methodology: Medical students enrolled in the 6th year completed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was in paper format and was divided into three parts: socio-demographic criteria; speciality choice; and factors influencing career choice. Students were asked to rate the extent to which they perceived each of the 24 items as influencing their career choice using a Likert scale ranging from 1 (no influence) to 5 (strong influence). The factors were compared according to the speciality choice (medical or surgical).

Results: The 3 most chosen specialties were: cardiology (17.9%), gynaecology-obstetrics (15.7%) and paediatrics (9.6%). The desire to take the internship competition was more frequent among students who chose a surgical speciality (p = 0.02). The choice of a medical speciality was more influenced by the willingness to work part-time (p = 0.04). Students who choose a medical speciality were more guided by social commitment than those who chose a surgical speciality (p = 0.04). In contrast, the latter were more influenced by prestige among colleagues (p = 0.04) and immediate postoperative outcomes (p = 0.01).

Conclusion: The efficient equipment of health structures could contribute to the development of other less chosen specialities by making them more attractive. A reorganisation of the system with the deployment of teachers in regional hospitals with a minimum of equipment is indispensable in order to allow a "decentralization" of the specialization curriculum, especially for the surgical specialties.As for the aspiration to part-time work, it can be explained by the need to reconcile family and professional life, but also by a sometimes unspoken project to develop a lucrative extra-medical activity in order to make up insufficient wages.