ANAESTHESIOLOGY AS A CAREER CHOICE AMONGST INTERN DOCTORS AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL - QUESTIONNAIRE BASED STUDY

Background:Selection of speciality branch for Intern is becoming a challenge nowadays.Anaesthesia is one of the most sought after branch in developed countries while it is not much preferred in developing countries like ours.

Aims:1) To assess awareness and attitude towards anaesthesiology as the choice of post graduate course amongst intern doctors 2) To assess the factors which influence in making such choice.

Method:A cross sectional study, in which hospital-based questionnaire will be conducted in GMERS Medical College and hospital, Gandhinagar. Data will be collected using interviewer-administered validated questionnaire.After completion of survey, data collected will be analysed. Results:In our study total 126 intern doctors, Regarding the preferences of speciality branch for post graduate course we came to know that general medicine was the first preferred branch for the majority (58.86%) interns and anaesthesia was in second and third choice for many students (18%),With very less number of interns to choose anaesthesia, the reasons for not choosing anaesthesia was that it is an emergency and risky branch and second major reason was lack of recognition to the patients.Increase duration of anaesthesia posting during UG course will help to create awareness about anaesthesia as per 51% intern doctors.

Conclusion:To increase interest, we as an anaesthetist should increase the duration of posting during internship and should increase vocational interactions regarding challenge and importance of anaesthesia during peri-operative period.