Barometer among medical university students 2021

Prague, 7 June 2022 – Interest in practising their profession in their country continues to grow among Czech students with Czech citizenship 88 % (82 % in 2019) and Slovak students with Slovak citizenship 78 % (77 % in 2019). A positive finding is that 61 % (50 % in 2019) of Czech students with a different citizenship plan to work in the Czech Republic after graduation. On the contrary, only 13 % of students with another citizenship in Slovakia want to work in that country after their graduation.

Students most often want to practise their profession at hospitals. In the Czech Republic, students head for university hospitals (48 %) and also regional/municipal hospitals (47 %). In Slovakia, the vast majority of students want to work after their graduation at a university hospital (63 %). Only 26 % of students head for Slovak regional/municipal hospitals.

When choosing which medical specialisation to pursue in their country, the most sought-after disciplines are general practitioner, paediatrics and internal medicine. Anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine, internal medicine and surgery are the most popular disciplines for students who prefer to travel abroad for work.

During their studies, Czech (54 %) and Slovak (60 %) students prefer to practise their profession at a university hospital. They most often decide this way due to the wide range of patients, procedures and possibilities, including workplace specialisation. The interest in practice at a regional/municipal hospital is almost twice as high in the Czech Republic (41 %) as in the Slovak Republic (23 %).

Students consider active and sufficient support for the practice of their profession beyond study from the faculty to be insufficient (51 % of students in the Czech Republic and 65 % of students in Slovakia). In this context, 89 % of students in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on average would also welcome the introduction of thematic seminars where they could acquire knowledge for their future practice.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE CHOICE OF THE SITE FOR FUTURE PRACTICE OF STUDENTS:

Students who want to practise their medical profession abroad most often prefer long-term stays of 11 years and more. The most common reasons for students in both countries to work abroad are better salary and living conditions.

The idea of ​​salary after the first postgraduate certification for students in the Czech Republic most often ranges from CZK 50,000 to 60,000 (26 %). In Slovakia, salary expectations after the first postgraduate certification are higher, most often in a range from CZK 60,000 to 70,000 and from CZK 70,000 to 80,000 (both 22 %). Ideas of students in the Czech Republic (25 %) and Slovakia (40 %) of salary after the first postgraduate certification in the case of practising their medical profession abroad most often exceed CZK 100,000.

These conclusions resulted from the outcomes of the 6th year of the international survey among 4th-, 5th- and 6th-year students of eight medical faculties in the Czech Republic and four medical faculties in Slovakia entitled "Barometer among medical university students" of the HealthCare Institute CIC, which took place in autumn 2021. A total of 1,035 respondents from Czech medical faculties and 754 respondents from Slovak medical faculties participated in this survey.

The aim of this unique international survey was to find out how many students of Czech and Slovak medical faculties plan to look for a job in their country after graduation at university and how many students have already decided to look for job offers abroad. Last but not least, the aim was also to identify the main causes or reasons for their decision-making and to compare the results in various questions of student priorities in the Czech Republic and in the Slovak Republic.

Detailed results of the survey you can found at: http://www.hc-institute.org/cz/projekty/barometr-mezi-mediky/barometr-mezi-mediky-2021-priloha-tiskove-zpravy.html

The short press release in an open version you can download HERE =>

Detailed results in PDF format you can download HERE =>