Teaching effect of career planning course among medical students

Objective To investigate the teaching effect of career planning course in medical students through questionnaire survey and interview. Methods A total of 54 medical students of the classes of 2017 and 2018 were selected as research subjects, and the career planning course was implemented. Questionnaire survey and interview were performed before and after teaching to measure career maturity index and evaluate the teaching effect of this course. SPSS 15.0 was used for data processing, The t-test was used for comparison before and after teaching. Results All medical students had significant increases in the scores of self-recognition, occupational understanding, information application, personal adjustment, and professional attitude after teaching. As for information application, the score of career maturity was (3.71±0.99) before teaching and (4.01±0.93) after teaching, and there was a significant change after teaching (P=0.015), while there were no significant changes in the other dimensions after teaching. Male students had significantly higher scores of self-recognition, occupational understanding, personal adjustment, and professional attitude than female students, while female students had a significantly higher score of information application than male students. There was a significant difference in professional attitude between male and female students (P<0.05). Conclusion The career planning course for medical students can provide help and inspiration for career development, but some of the teaching contents needs to be optimized and improved. Key words: Medical student; Career planning; Career maturity; Teaching effect