Anaesthesia as a career--the influence of undergraduate education in a Nigerian Medical School.

Sixty-seven final year medical students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria were questioned to find out the influence of undergraduate education on their choice of future career. Eighty per cent of them found anaesthesia interesting and important but none would pick anaesthesia as a first choice for future career. One-third of the students studied did not even consider it. The students made several suggestions on how to improve undergraduate medical training. The author also suggests measures for general improvement in all aspects of anaesthetic practice in Nigeria with a view to attracting more residents into this specialty.