Prosocial modelling matters: the association between parent and faculty involvement in fighting COVID-19 with medical students’ career commitment

Abstract

Background

Role models are essential in medical education, yet empirical research is relatively insufficient on the influence of prosocial modelling on medical students’ career commitment. The prosocial behaviour of medical staff involved in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at the beginning of 2020 presents an opportunity to fill the research gap. We explored and compared the different associations of the two most important role models for medical students – parents and faculty- with medical students’ career commitment.

Methods

The cross-sectional study was conducted with 99,559 undergraduate students majoring in clinical medicine in mainland China. Questions were asked to collect information about participants in the battle against COVID-19, medical students’ determination to practice medicine after graduation, as well as students’ socio-demographic characteristics. Chi-square tests and hierarchical regressions were performed to examine the associations between parent and faculty involvement and students’ career commitment.

Results

The results showed statistically significant associations between prosocial modelling during the COVID-19 pandemic in China and students’ intention to pursue medical careers. The association of faculty involvement (OR = 1.165, p < .001) with students’ career commitment was greater than that of parents (OR = 0.970, p > .05). For faculty involvement, the association was stronger among male students (OR = 1.323, p < .001) and students who were already determined to be doctors (OR = 1.219, p < .001) before the pandemic.

Conclusions

Our study provides new evidence on the potential roles of parents and faculty in shaping medical students’ career commitment. Encouraging faculty to act as positive role models could help medical students increase their intention to become doctors.

KEY MESSAGES

• Prosocial modelling could enhance students’ intention to pursue medical careers.

• The association of prosocial behaviour of faculty is larger than that of parents on medical students.

• Those who have prior medical career commitment are much more likely to persist in the medical profession, and prosocial modelling of faculty is positively associated with their medical career commitment.

Keywords:

• Career choice
• COVID-19
• medical student
• prosocial modelling
• role model

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all participants who completed the questionnaire and are much indebted to the Ministry of Education (MOE) of the People’s Republic of China for helping with the implementation of this survey.

Ethical approval

The authors participated training from Peking University Institutional Review Board (PKU IRB) and got the certificate. PKU IRB usually exempts educational research from the requirement of ethical approval. This study was granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval by the PKU IRB because the survey was anonymous and did not include sensitive questions. An introduction about the survey was provided on the first page of the questionnaire, including aims, the main contents of this survey and promise to keep the data anonymous and confidential. The sampled students had the right to withdraw at any time.

Authors’ contributions

All the authors have made significant contributions to this study. HW led the conception and design of the study, as well as conducted the survey and modified the manuscript. DW performed the data analysis, and wrote the manuscript. XY helped with the data analysis and the manuscript preparation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Our paper has been pre-printed already. https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-293789/v1/f2aea680-09de-4e1b-9db1-efee30ab2aa0.pdf?c=1637817259. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-293789/v1

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data used in this study are not publicly available due to confidentiality reasons. Data supporting the results of this study can be obtained from the author, Prof. Hongbin Wu.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the program number is 72174013.