Career Intentions and the Determining Factors among Health Science Students: A Systematic Review.

Abstract

Background: Health systemsneed adequate personnelin order to function; improvements in health-care services delivery, and coverage and the enjoyment of standard healthcare as a right, depend on the availability, mixture, quality, and accessibility of the health-care workforce.

Purpose: This review aimed to synthesize reliable evidence ondetermining factors among health science students' career choices to enhance policy advocacy for better health-care delivery.

Method: We sourced empirical studies from Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. From a total of 9,056 researcharticlesfrom 2010 to 2022, 27 studies with a total of 45,832 respondents met the inclusion criteria.

Results: The majority of the studies were of medical students; internal medicine was the commonest choice (64.3%), with psychiatry and public health receiving lesser attention. In the four available studies of nursing students, midwifery was not chosen at all. There is a paucity of studies on this all-important concept for nursing students. The determining factors of choice of specialty were in four themes: personal, socioeconomic, professional, and educational/policy. Among the barriers to choosing particular specialties were low prestige among colleagues, stigma, long working hours, and poor public recognition.

Conclusion: The career choices of health science students do not reflect an adequate mix of health-care team members to meet the health-care needs of the world. Reforms of policy and educational training are needed.