Authors

1 Faculty member, Dental materials research center, Dental faculty, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

2 Dental student, Students Research Committee, Dental faculty, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

3 Faculty member, Statistics and Epidemiology Department, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol,Iran

4 Faculty member, Department of medical education, Education Development Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol,Iran

Abstract

Due to many factors such as culture, climate, and economy could affect students' motives in choosing a field of study at university, the present study was to determine the motives of medical and dental students at the Babol University of medical sciences for choosing major. A valid and reliable questionnaire inquiring students’ demographic characteristics and their incentives for entering dentistry and medicine was distributed. Then the data were analyzed by Chi-Square test along using SPSS version 19; and the statistics obtained (P<0.05) was considered significant. From 100 Distributed questionnaires, 99 questionnaires (99%) were returned. The scientific basis of career was the first motivation of the selection medicine as academic major, and a high professional status for dental students was a primary motivation for choosing this field, too; moreover, Job-related incentive was considered as strong motivation for male students than female students in course selection that this difference was significant (P=0.01). Considering the results, it should be noted that both medical and dental students had high level of motivation in choosing a career upon to their social and professional status which suggests that this issue remains as a priority in the selection of academic disciplines for the majority of supporters.

Keywords

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