For the third consecutive year, the number of young doctors who want to stay in Bulgaria after graduation continues to grow – this is indicated by the results of the survey among 224 Bulgarian graduates from the Class of 2024 of the Faculty of Medicine at the Medical University-Sofia.
74.3% of the graduates plan to work in Bulgaria. This means that already this month, over 160 young doctors will enter hospitals in our country.
The Class of 2024 is the third to sustainably reverse the long-standing negative trend of graduates wanting to continue their development outside of Bulgaria – in the Class of 2022, 50% of those surveyed wanted to stay in the country, and in the Class of 2023, it was already 62.5%. The growth is now up another 12%. For the first time in over 10 years, the percentage of those remaining is so high.
86.2% want to work in hospitals and only 7.7% as general practitioners. Only 2.9% of graduates would pursue a scientific career. The percentage of those wishing to work as sales representatives of pharmaceutical companies remains low (1.4%). Only 1.5% of the graduating class would work in an administrative structure in the healthcare system.
The three most important expectations of young doctors are: to improve pay (25%), to improve management at all levels in the healthcare system (15.6%) and to provide more modern equipment (12.4%).
25.7% of the Class of 2024 plan to leave the country, with 80.7% of them primarily oriented towards European countries. Those wishing to work in the USA are 5.3% and have decreased by 3.5% compared to the previous class.
The reasons for leaving Bulgaria are: higher pay abroad (22.7%), better organization of the healthcare system (19.4%). Graduates continue to indicate as a reason for leaving the fact that the development of young staff in the healthcare system in our country is difficult (14.3%).
Pediatrics is in first place as the most desired specialty (10%). The growth is 3.3% compared to the previous class. In second place is cardiology (9.3%), in third - surgery (8.7%). Next are imaging diagnostics (5.6%) and endocrinology (5.6%). Obstetrics and gynecology will be practiced by 5% of graduates, and gastroenterology - 4.3%. Interest in anesthesiology and resuscitation has decreased significantly compared to the previous class (12.2%). Now only 3% of graduates have chosen this specialty, i.e. the decrease is about 9%. The remaining specialties are gaining about 2%.
Oncology and emergency medicine continue to be the least preferred fields of work by young doctors - with 1.8% each.
The positive assessment of the level of education at the Faculty of Medicine is growing. When asked whether they would recommend it as a place to study, 79.7% answered “Yes”, which is 3% more compared to the previous class.
577 young doctors graduated, of which 224 were Bulgarian students and 353 were foreign.