Psychiatry as a career choice among medical students: a cross-sectional study examining school-related and non-school factors

Abstract

ObjectivesGiven the low recruitment to psychiatry worldwide, the current study aimed to examine how premedical and intramedical school factors, perception of career aspects, attitudes towards psychiatry, stigma towards mental illness and personality traits may affect the likelihood of psychiatry as a career choice.DesignCross-sectional online study.Participants502 medical students from two public medical institutions in Singapore.MethodsWe critically examined existing literature for factors identified to influence psychiatry as a career choice and explored their effects in a group of medical students in Singapore. To avoid overloading the regression model, this analysis only included variables shown to have significant association (p<0.05) with the outcome variable from the initial Χ2 test and independent t-test analyses.ResultsA considerable number of non-medical school factors such as preschool influence and interest, personality traits and importance of a high status specialty in medicine were found to affect students’ choice of psychiatry as a career. Among medical school factors, attending a psychiatry/mental health club was the only influential factor. Negative attitudes towards psychiatry, but not stigma towards people with mental illness, significantly predicted the likelihood of not choosing psychiatry as a career.ConclusionsImproving educational environment or teaching practice in psychiatric training may aid in future recruitment for psychiatrists. While the changing of premedical school influences or personality factors may be infeasible, medical schools and psychiatry institutes could play a more critical role by enhancing enrichment activities or clerkship experience to bring about a more positive attitudinal change towards psychiatry among students who did consider a career in psychiatry.

Attitudes Towards Psychiatry in Lebanese Medical Students: What Are the Factors that Could Lead to a More Favorable Outlook?

“…Being acquainted with a psychiatric patient is one of the two significant factors to more favorable ATP-30 scores identified in this study. This sensitization role was identified in other publications through attending a psychiatry/mental health club during medical school years, for instance [ 19 – 21 ]. This finding emphasizes the importance of continuous close contact with patients struggling with mental disorders, which gives medical students an insight into these patients’ daily lives, possibly portraying the importance of good patient management and highlighting the role of the psychiatrist in society.…”

<p>Factors associated with medical students’ choice of psychiatry as future specialty: a cross-sectional study</p>

“…A slightly higher number 27.9% of medical students choosing psychiatry were reported from a Canadian study on psychiatry residents who actually decided to choose specialty during their undergraduate medical school 21. This result was less than a study from Singapore which reported that 44% of medical students showed intention to choose psychiatry specialty 22. This could be due to inclusion of medical students from yearI to year V in the later study and only fourth year medical students who actually were exposed to psychiatry courses in the current study.…”

“…Similar previous study results also supported the current study findings that various factors were playing a role in medical students’ psychiatry specialty choice. Attitude toward psychiatry or mental health,22,24 opportunity for further education or training and salary were reported to be associated with psychiatry choice.25 A rating of “excellent” for the psychiatry clerkship and longer psychiatry rotation,23,26 the degree to which psychiatric practice is perceived to be evidence based, research opportunities, and curiosity about the topic of “madness”,16 external and internal stigma, quality of teaching of the subject as well as research exposure, effective college neuroscience courses and clinical experience and exposure during placements affects the psychiatry specialty choice 27,28. Hence, it is vital to look into and intervene infactors that affect the choice of psychiatry as future specialty career so that it will be possible to attract many medical practitioners to the discipline.…”

Why psychiatry as a career: Effect of factors on medical students' motivation

“…In a cross-sectional online study done among 502 students in Singapore[ 11 ] showed that several factors categorized as non-medical factors influenced choosing psychiatry as a career choice, i.e., preschool influence, interest in the field, and having a family member or close contact with psychiatric illness. Among medical factors, i.e., attending psychiatry health club and having an optional elective course in the speciality were significant factors for choosing to enrol in psychiatry.…”