Comparison of Factors Affecting Clinical Performance and Choice of Specialty Among Medical Students

Objective: To determine the relationship between various personality traits affecting clinical performance and choice of specialty among medical students. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Al-Nafees Medical College, Islamabad Pakistan, from May 2022 to Jun 2022. Methodology: The present study was conducted among 1^st, 4^th, and final year medical students during academic session 2022. The total duration of the study was 8 weeks and 287 in-campus students were selected with the help of a designed questionnaire. Data was statistically analyzed in SPSS v25. Results: This study included 300 people, however only 287 answered (95.67%). The majority of the graduating students opt surgery as their future specialty i.e. 29.7%. Although the study indicated that performance declines over time as in 1st year, we had 85(88.5%) out of 96 respondents that scored above 80% while 4(4%) out of 97 in final year scored above 80%. Extraordinary students had greater agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion traits among them. Extraverted medical students sleep longer, whereas amiable and open-minded students sleep less. As the clinical year of clerkship advances, agreeableness trait grows while neurotic trait diminishes, especially among high-achieving students. Conclusion: According to the findings of this research, some characteristics of personality are linked to the academic achievement of medical students. Personality traits and specialty choice can improve career counselling of medical students. This study recommends that personality traits, in addition to cognitive considerations, should be considered by medical educators when evaluating the potential academic and clinical success of their students.