Perception of Community Medicine as a Specialty Choice among Clinical Medical Students in a Nigerian University: Any Remedies?

Background: Community Medicine is the study of health and disease in a population of a defined community. Insights into the attitude of clinical medical students towards Community Medicine specialty can help in planning a balanced workforce for better healthcare delivery.

Objective: This study was carried out to ascertain the perception of clinical medial students towards Community Medicine as a specialty.

Methodology: The study design was cross sectional descriptive. All the 296 medical students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka belonging to 4th to 6th year classes were recruited and interviewed for the study, but response rate was 290/296 (98%).

Results: Two hundred and ninety returned their questionnaires and they displayed good knowledge of the discipline and its role in the society; majority 269 (92.8%) perceived Community Medicine as vital part of medicine. About 45.9% and 45.5% displayed the most comprehensive knowledge and perception of the specialty respectively. However, only 41 (14.1%) would choose Community Medicine as a specialty; amounting to third most preferred specialty in Medicine after Surgery (42.4%) and Obstetrics/Gynecology (24.1%) in this study. Among the 249 who would not specialize in Community Medicine, 195 (78.3%) were of the opinion that ‘it was not interesting’.

Conclusion: Respondents showed good knowledge of Community Medicine but majority would not specialize in the discipline mainly because they did not find it interesting. Continuous education of stakeholders, students, parents and general populace as to what really constitutes Community Medicine might be useful. Also curriculum should be redesigned to lay emphasis on the peculiarly interesting rural community-based postings.