abdoalsir/medicine-motivations-oiu-2025

Cross-sectional study of motivations for choosing medicine and their psychological and social effects among N=298 medical students at OIU Sudan (2025); multiple regression using IBM SPSS v26. # Motivations for Choosing Medicine and Psychological and Social Effects — OIU ## Omdurman, Sudan – 2025 **Study type:** Cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study **Degree level:** MBBS **Institution:** Faculty of Medicine, Omdurman Islamic University **Sample size:** N = 298 medical students (2nd–5th year) **Data analyst:** Abdulrahman Sirelkhatim --- ## Background The decision to pursue medicine is among the most consequential academic choices a young person can make, carrying implications that extend well beyond career trajectory into daily wellbeing, social functioning, and psychological health. A growing body of international research distinguishes between intrinsic motivations — genuine passion for science, desire to help others, intellectual curiosity — and extrinsic motivations such as social prestige, financial security, and family expectation. These motivational profiles are not merely academic; they predict burnout, dropout intention, professional identity, and mental health outcomes across the medical training continuum. In Sudan, the landscape of medical education motivation is shaped by cultural forces that place strong social value on medicine as a profession. Family influence — ranging from aspirational modeling to direct pressure — plays a particularly prominent role in specialty choice decisions. Simultaneously, students navigate the psychological demands of medical training within a system under severe stress: the April 2023 armed conflict disrupted universities, displaced faculty and students, and eliminated whatever limited mental health infrastructure existed. Despite the relevance of motivation research for curriculum design, student support interventions, and workforce planning, no study had previously characterized the motivational profiles of medical students at Omdurman Islamic University or examined how these profiles relate to psychological distress and social disruption during training. This study fills that gap. ## Objec …