General medicine interns’ attitude in continuing their education in emergency medicine residency programs

Emergency medicine (EM) is a relatively new medical specialty, which concerns patients who need vital and urgent medical care. This study aimed to evaluate the general medicine interns’ attitude in continuing their education in EM residency programs. 

This study is a prospective cross-sectional study, which was performed on 180 medical students during their internship using convenience sampling. Data were collected using a valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS 26 software. 

One hundred and eighty medical students in the internship period with the mean of 25.65 ± 2.72 (23 – 46) years were studied (53.3% male; 76.7% single). Only 33 (18.3%) interns indicated their interest in continuing their education in EM residency programs. 30 (16.66) cases were not interested in continuing their education in any residency program (61.1% of whom cited migration as the reason, 13% cited not working as a specialist, 14.8% indicated lack of economic justification, and 11.1% cited other reasons for not wanting to enter residency programs). The mean overall interest score to EM residency program was 59.61 ± 12.66 % (20 – 96.41%). The lowest and highest interest scores obtained in the economic status (47.91 ± 21.13%) and education status (70.59 ± 15.77%) of EM specialty, respectively. The mean overall interest score was not statistically different between male and female students (p = 0.366). There was a significant statistical correlation between gender and type of discipline chosen, and female mostly chose non-surgical disciplines (p = 0.001). 

The interest of general medicine interns in continuing their education in EM residency program was average. The economic field of EM has been one of the best factors in attracting students to continue their studies in this field.