Women in Medicine: Opportunities and Challenges, Attitudes of Shiraz Female Students About Their Job Satisfaction, 2014

Abstract

<strong>Background:</strong> Women comprise more than half of the world's population. In different societies, because of different views and attitudes, women are affected by various factors such as culture, customs, religion, economy and etc.<br /> <strong>Objectives:</strong> The present research attempts to determine why medical students are interested in general medicine and how they seek job satisfaction. In this connection, it is also important to know about the existing problems and barriers and to propose approaches to prevent them.<br /> <strong>Patients and Methods:</strong> This cross-sectional study is comprised of female medical students of whom 100 were randomly selected using random numbers table. Data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire including 20 questions. Validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the medical education academics and its reliability was checked by a pilot study of 20 medical students which was considered 86% according to Cronbachs' Alpha. The data analysis was done using SPSS version 14.<br /> <strong>Results:</strong> With respect to marital status, 22% and 78% of the participants were married and single 78% were, with their average age being 26 ± 0.98 SD years. Respectively also their job satisfaction mean score was 4.19 ± 1.51 out of 7 which showed no significant association between job satisfaction and marriage and they exhibited positive attitude toward General Medicine (P = 0.639, 0.002). There was a significant association between job satisfaction and attitude of women toward their husbands who were practicing physician (P = 0.018).<br /> <strong>Conclusions:</strong> According to the results of this study, as the majority of the target population comprised women with family responsibilities, stakeholders and other program designers are recommended to provide special facilities in order to increase job and education opportunities for women.