Factors that Determine Medical Student Interest in Psychiatry

Abstract

Our study of pre-medical and medical students attending the Universities of British Columbia, Hong Kong and Otago, together with house surgeons, general practitioners, surgeons and psychiatrists in New Zealand, demonstrated many agreements regarding both positive and negative factors affecting their interest in psychiatry. Positive factors included: interest in human behaviour, personal aptitude, and quality of patient care. Negative factors included: the stress of practising psychiatry, faculty attitude and the quality of the science. Differences were determined by age of the students and cultural and personal experiences. We concluded that if more students are to be interested in psychiatry then psychiatrists will need to show that they enjoy their work and give effective treatment.

Psychiatric Training in New Zealand

“…There are reports of difficulties in maintaining adequate recruitment into psychiatric training programs in a number of countries [2–4]. The decision making process around the choice of specialty career is complex, and studies suggest that, for psychiatry at least, both premedical [5–9] and medical school factors [7,10–13] are likely to be important. The premedical school factors include demographic, social and personality factors as well as personal and family experiences of illness and therapy.…”

The attitudes towards psychiatry residency in medical students who are preparing for the medical specialty examination

“…New training methods which will not put stress on interns and make them feel competent and efficient should be found. Also, it should be reminded to every intern that a piece of stress is inevitable in psychiatry like in other rotations (16,17). However, it should be kept in mind that time spent with patients should not be reduced and psychiatry rotation should not be perceived as an "easy rotation" in order to reduce the stress (15).…”

Who wants to do psychiatry?

“…Studies examining the career preferences of newly-qualified doctors in the UK indicate that only about 4% specify psychiatry as their first preference (Lambert et al, 1996), although the number entering psychiatric training (about 8%) is greater than expected from the career aims of graduands (Brockington & Mumford, 2002). Many studies have investigated factors influencing medical students in their choice of psychiatry as a career, including personality, perceived lifestyle, family background and the effect of the undergraduate medical curriculum (Eagle & Marcos, 1981;Zimney & Lindbergh, 1986;Mobray et al, 1990;Ney et al, 1990;Lee et al, 1995). We wanted to investigate whether participation in a scheme in which first-year clinical medical students take on a patient for supervised psychotherapy is a factor in leading them to choose a career in psychiatry after qualification.…”

“…The importance of the medical school curriculum itself in influencing the choice of specialty has been debated by researchers (Brockington & Mumford, 2002), but many studies have emphasised the importance of clinical influences at medical school, in particular the psychiatric clerkship or 'firm'. Factors cited most frequently in positively influencing the choice of psychiatry include the psychiatrist-patient relationship, emphasis on treating the 'whole person', amount of patient interaction, and positive experiences with members of the psychiatric faculty or department (Zimney & Lindbergh, 1986;Ney et al, 1990;Lee et al, 1995;Kirchner & Owen, 1996). These are all experiences that are promoted by participation in the SPS; indeed, one of the main original aims was to enable students to learn in more depth about the doctor-patient relationship.…”

“…It has been estimated that over 100 academic, biographical and non-cognitive variables could be associated with speciality choice (Mobray et al, 1990). For psychiatry, these include personality factors, gender, perceived status of psychiatry, financial considerations, curiosity and learning style (Mobray et al, 1990;Ney et al, 1990). The importance of the medical school curriculum itself in influencing the choice of specialty has been debated by researchers (Brockington & Mumford, 2002), but many studies have emphasised the importance of clinical influences at medical school, in particular the psychiatric clerkship or 'firm'.…”