Survey on employment intention of medical students in China

Objective To survey the employment intention of medical students of five-year program in China. Methods A self-administered questionnaire survey on the employment intention was conducted among grade-5 medical students of 5-year program in 8 medical schools from January to June 2017, 395 participants (161 males and 234 females) were selected by stratified random cluster sampling method. Results The survey showed that 57.65% (226/392) respondents would return hometown after graduation as their first choice, 20.66% (81/392) preferred to work in large cities, only 0.76% (3/292) chose the Western and rural areas; 20.05% (78/389) responders were willing to be a general practitioner working at the community health center, 56.55% (220/389) did not decide, while 23.40% (91/389) did not want to be general practitioner. Students from rural areas vs. from urban areas (24.30% vs.15.08%), whose parents with lower educational level vs. higher educational level (30.62% vs. 25.71%), from medical school in Western regions vs. in Eastern regions (28.65% vs. 11.68%) were more willing to choose general practice (P 0.05). Students who knew grassroots employment policies were more willing to be general practitioners (25.48% vs.13.02%, P<0.05). Conclusion The survey shows that the employment intention to be a general practitioner is stronger than before among medical students. But it is still need to take necessary measures to attract more medical graduates to work as general practitioners in grass-roots communities. Key words: Career choice; Questionnaire; General practice