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Choosing psychiatry as a career

Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh E10 5HF, UK. E-mail: benbaig{at}doctors.org.uk

As a graduate of 2000 and a participant in Goldacre et al’s survey, I was keen to reflect on which influences led me towards psychiatry and how these compared with those of others. Interestingly, the paper reports that only a small percentage of those entering the specialty had intentions to do so before medical school (18%). Thus major influences on career choice are the curriculum, clinical experience and inspiring teachers. My own experience would be consistent with this, along with an interest held by my peer group at medical school. As an Edinburgh graduate I was interested to find that Edinburgh had the highest percentage of doctors choosing psychiatry, after 3 years, of all UK medical schools. Edinburgh has a notable academic department through which the curriculum is conducted but other medical schools with large academic units do not appear to attract as many candidates into the discipline. If recruitment into psychiatry became a problem, at what point should the curriculum at medical schools be reassessed at a national level or by the Royal College of Psychiatrists? Surely the future of psychiatry is dependent on the engaging of prospective students with the corpus of academic and clinical excellence.

REFERENCES

Goldacre, M. J., Turner, G., Fazel, S., et al (2005) Career choices for psychiatry: national surveys of graduates of 1974-2000 from UK medical schools. British Journal of Psychiatry, 186, 158 -164.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter View responses Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Baig, B. J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Baig, B. J.