National Survey of Recently Graduated Thai Medical Interns’ Characteristics and Perspectives Regarding Resignation Intention: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Observational Study
Abstract
Objective: The Thai medical internship program is a one-year post-graduation program that requires newly graduated doctors to rotate in major specialties in a government hospital. These newly graduated doctors carry a significant workload in the hospital and Thai healthcare system. However, there is a lack of data on the characteristics and attitudes of this new generation of doctors, which limits the ability to create appropriate interventions to address the issue of resignations within this group. This study aimed to collect data in order to understand the Thai medical internship program and identify the possible reasons for resignations among the new generation of doctors.
Material and Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study was compiled from the recently graduated medical interns' national general information survey, 2021. We used descriptive statistics and Spearman's correlation using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 28.0.0.0.
Results: We included 2,431 participants, of which 1,139 (46.9%) were male and 1,292 were female (53.1%). The most common expected salary range during the internship was 40,000–60,000 Thai Baht per month (46.2%). Up to 3.5%, or 84 participants, planned to resign from their internship. The reasons for the resignations from the program included a poor working environment (61.4%), too much workload (51.7%), and low income (42.9%). Those interested in the cosmetic field (5.8%) and willing to work in other fields (7.6%) were much less common.
Conclusion: The main reason for the possible resignations of the newly graduated Thai doctors was the miserable work environment, due to a multitude of factors that require further research and intervention.
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