Opting to Stay in the Pakistan or Abroad; A Cross Sectional Survey of Tow Public and Private Medical Colleges

Objective: To determine the reasons of opting to stay in the Pakistan or abroad between students of tow public and private medical colleges. Materials and Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted in a Private and Public sector medical college in Karachi from October to November 2018. A sample of 400 medical students 200 from each college, 40 students (20 males; 20 females) from each of first to final (5th) year batches separately were selected randomly. Study protocol was approved by the Ethical Review Committee of DUHS while permission for data collection on a questioner of 16 items was sought from authorities of both Medical Colleges. Data were entered & analyzed into SPSS version 26. Results: The mean age of students was 22.18 ± 1.788 years. Father of 20.3% (n=81) and the mother of 12.8% (n=51) students were MBBS, or BDS and almost all of them were practicing. It was found that with the increasing age / class year preference of working in Pakistan (and UK) increased (Up to 1.5 times; p value < 0.380). Likewise; females prefer Pakistan, UK and Gulf countries more than males who had Pakistan and USA top preference to medicine career in the future (P value = 0.758). Although abroad preference was statically significant among private university student (P value = 0.001). Conclusion: Private university medical students were more observed for opting the foreign countries mostly UK and USA compared to the government Medical University students. Financial Reward, life-Style and job Opportunities were observed the commonest reasons. The lack of career counselling and guideline results in health industry losing many future doctors every year as well as loss of potential resources on their training. Keywords: Medical Education, Motivational factors, Emigration