Motivation towards Pediatrics from the Discipline of Medical Psychology

Abstract

Introduction: The development of competencies is part of the process of personality education. Learning a subject can also contribute to the motivation for studying a specialty. The influence of subjects on the formation of competencies is acknowledged by researchers who recognize that this learning is decisive in motivating for the profession.

Objective: To assess the motivation towards pediatrics as a future specialty based on the learning outcomes of content related to Developmental Psychology.

Methods: As part of research in their own teaching (action research), the authors use three approaches as instruments to obtain information, the results of which are evaluated with a predominantly qualitative approach. Opinions were gathered through interviews and the results of questions from the midterm exam of two groups of students who, each in a course, took the Psychology subject, taught in the fourth semester of the medical degree program, as part of Plan E.

Results: In a historical analysis of opinions collected since the first year, there was a numerically considerable decrease in motivation for the specialty of pediatrics. Only 18.96% of the study subjects acknowledged that the subject of Psychology influences their motivation for the aforementioned specialty. The authors raise questions about this situation, which encourage further research in the path of competency training and should be taken into account in working with the curriculum.

Conclusions: The group of students who took the Psychology course feels that they learned, although most did not find in this learning a motivation to become interested in pursuing a specialty in pediatrics later on.