Abstract:

Aim: Medicine which is the most preferred profession in the university exam with thoughts such as being beneficial to humanity, job guarantee, high income and social status in Turkey is also a difficult profession that requires intensive working tempo, constant self-renewal and taking heavy responsibilities. During the long and intensive education the students get to know the working conditions of the profession better and their attitude towards the medical profession may become negative. The study was aimed to examine the senior medical students belief of medical achievement self-efficacy, attitudes towards the medical profession and related factors. Methods: The population of this descriptive study consists of all Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine senior students (n=279). The study was completed with 273 students. In the study, the data were collected with the Scale for Attitudes towards a Medical Profession (SATMP), the Medical Achievement Self-efficacy Scale (MASS) and a questionnaire consisting of questions about the socio-demographic characteristics of the students. Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis Test and Spearman Correlation Analysis were used in the analysis of the data. Results: While the median score of SATMP was 88, the median score of MASS was determined as 62. While there was no relationship between the medical faculty academic achievement scores of the students and their SATMP scores and MASS scores; A moderate positive correlation was found between SATMP scores and MASS scores. The SATMP score averages of the students preferred medical school in the first place, defined the reason for choosing medical school as their dream profession, and wanted to work as an academician-specialist doctor after graduation and who were female were found to be higher. The MASS score averages of the students whose mothers are university graduates and who are considering working as an academician-specialist physician as a post-graduation career plan were found to be higher. Conclusions: In our study; It has been determined that as the attitude towards the profession becomes positive, the professional self-efficacy belief of the students also increases, and the academic achievement score is not related to both the professional attitude and the professional self-efficacy belief. Further studies are needed to better understand the causality dimension of the relationship between professional attitude, professional self-efficacy and academic achievement.

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