Students’ Interests on a Particular Area (Specialty) in the Profession of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, UDU, Sokoto, North-Western Nigeria

Objective: The objective of this survey was to ascertain a better understanding on the students’ interest on a particular area (specialty) in the profession of Medical Laboratory Sciences (Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science), Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Usmanu Danfodiyo University (UDU), Sokoto, North-Western Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: A structured self-administered questionnaire was designed and distributed for this purpose. This study was carried out between January to March 2016. Five hundred and Six (506) questionnaires were distributed to the students (from 100 level to 500 level), but only Four hundred and Eighty-Three (483) were returned completed.

Results: Of the 53 Brilliant students participated in this study; 41(77.4%) male and 12(22.6%) female, the majority of the students have interest to work in Medical Microbiology; 16(30.2%) followed by Haematology and Blood Transfusion Science; 14(26.5%) Chemical Pathology; 13(24.5%) while Immunology; 5(9.4%), and Histopathology; 5(9.4%) have the least number of students.

Conclusion: This finding indicated that the most favorite laboratory discipline for training was Haematology/Blood Transfusion Science followed by Medical Microbiology, Chemical Pathology, Immunology and lastly Histopathology. It emerged after many discussions with the students of Medical Laboratory Science that they preferred Haematology/Blood Transfusion Science because it allowed them to use their theoretical knowledge to work with their hands and sometimes with automation than the other laboratories.