Abstract
This research was aimed at investigating the reasons for and the motivation of medical graduates of
Khon Kaen University choosing to work in community hospitals in northeastern Thailand after completing
their compulsory three-year bonded period of work. The population comprised 557 physicians who
had graduated during the years 1979-2003. A total of 233 samples were selected by stratified random
sampling and the data were collected by questionnaire. The research findings were as follows:
1. The factors that were significant in the retention of medical graduates who were working in
community hospitals in northeastern Thailand were the usefulness of knowledge of the community, the
preference for rural life and the requirement to work in/near their place of birth, respectively. To compare
the retention factors, the subjects were classified by sex, type of entrance, age range, grade and work
place. It was found that (1) male medical graduates prefer to work in administrative jobs compared with
female medical graduates, and (2) medical graduates who were working in community hospitals prefer to
work in administrative jobs rather than medical graduates working in a regional hospital.
2. The significant factors to support medical graduates who worked in community hospitals were
the extra money, improvement in hospital facilities and physical social welfare improvement, respectively.
3. The order of magnitude of the factors for choosing or changing the location of work was related
to postgraduate education, children’s education and individual factors, such as distance from home, quality
of life, etc. In making a comparison of the factors, the graduates could be classified by sex, type of
entrance, age range, grade and workplace as follows : (1) male medical graduates gave a greater priority
to their children’s education than their female peers; (2) medical graduates who had gained entrance by
quota gave greater priority to postgraduate education more than the other group; (3) medical graduates
who ranged in age from 44 to 53 gave greater priority to the management system than those in other age
groups and medical graduates who ranged in age between 34 and 43 years gave greater priority to postgraduate
education and their children’s education than any other age group; and (4) medical graduates
who were working in community hospitals gave greater priority to their task than the other group.
