Students' attitudes toward their field of study, studying at higher levels and future career at Yasuj University of Medical Sciences

Recent studies have shown that students' attitudes may change during studying. Medical students. Thus, the lack of motivation in these students who chose their field ultimately will reduce the quality of clinical education. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude of Yasuj paramedical school students towards their field of study, studying at higher levels, and, future of their career.

In this descriptive-analytical study, 196 samples of students from paramedical faculty in 2018 were chosen randomly. Data were collected using a questionnaire with twelve questions, and also demographic information of the students was documented. Data were analyzed by SPSS22 software using ANOVA, Chi-square, and t-tests.

In this study, 78 (39.8%) males and 118 (60.2%) female students’ involved. 130 (66.3%) participants of paramedical students had a negative attitude toward their field of study. Also, 127 students (64.8%) had a negative attitude toward studying at higher levels and 114 students (58.2%) had a negative attitude towards their future career. Finally, the overall attitude (attitude toward the field, studying at higher levels, and future career) was negative for the majority of students (68.9%). There was no significant association between attitude score with semester (p =0.158).

Based on our results, most of the paramedical students had a negative attitude toward their field of study, studying at higher levels, and future career. Their attitudes can be improved with reasonable employment to admission ratio, and also a fair balance between paramedical staff and other medical staff salaries.