Motivated strategies for learning used by public health interns and its relationship with their preference to work as a general practitioner

Objective: In this study it is aimed to investigate motivated strategies used by interns in public health clerkship and its relationship with their preference to work as a general practitioner. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out from January to December 2009. In this study, data was analyzed obtained from 285 students. The motivational dimension of motivated strategies for learning questionnaire was used. The questionnaire has 31 statements and 6 sub-dimensions and rated with a seven-point Likert scale. Additionally, the preferences of interns to work as a general practitioner, and what factors affect their interest to the public health issue through were asked an open-ended question. The differences between the preferences of interns to work as a general practitioner and motivation score were analyzed by variance analysis. The qualitative analysis of the data obtained open-ended question was done. Results: The motivation scores of interns were found moderate level. While the self-efficacy score of interns were high, the test anxietyscores were low. Interns who want to work as a general practitioner were higher intrinsic goal orientation, task value and total motivation score. Conclusion: Intern’s present motivation for learning was related to their professional future plans. While implementing learning activities it is important to relate present learning with future work.