Reasons Why Students Study Medicine: Views of Students at Delta State University Abraka, South-South Nigeria

Background: The demand to study medicine in Nigeria is very high thereby putting lots of pressure to the University authorities because of inadequate space and provision to accommodate the large number of applicants.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the factors motivating students and influencing their desire to study medicine and proffer solutions to reduce the population of applicants to medical schools.

Methodology: Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect information from 311 medical students of Delta State University Abraka, Nigeria. Data collated and analysed using IBM SPSS version 22 software.

Results: Three hundred and eleven students were interviewed comprising 193 males (62.1%) and 118 females (37.9%). The mean age was 23.47±3.92 years. More than 90% of the students were Christians and the same proportion were single. The Urhobos were of the majority. Reasons for studying medicine were: want to save lives (58%), doctors are respected (26%), other reasons such as passion for medical profession (12.8%) and desire to be rich (3.2%). People’s influences from friends, teachers and even family members were minimal as 51.8% of respondents took a self-decision to study medicine.

Conclusion: The reasons why the students study medicine were quite good and justified and hence they should be encouraged to fulfil their dreams. Government should establish more medical schools to accommodate the increased demand to study medicine. This will promote the production of more medical doctors and reduce the current poor and embarrassing doctor-to-patient ratio in Nigeria.