Psychiatrists: An Endangered Species? A Study to Observe Attitude of Fifth Year Medical Students to Psychiatry and to Compare Change in Same after a Psychiatry Posting During Medical School

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navroop Johnson ◽  
Declan Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Career Choice ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Trinity College ◽  
Significant Finding ◽  
Trinity College Dublin ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Almost All

AbstractObjective: This study was conducted to gauge the attitude of fifth year medical students to psychiatry as a potential career choice and to determine if an eight-week clinical attachment had any impact on this.Methods: We surveyed a cohort of fifth year medical students from Trinity College Dublin. A purpose designed, self-completed questionnaire was used to establish a number of variables and was given to students on the first and last day of their attachment in psychiatry. Participation was optional and responses were confidential. Questionnaires were distributed following an explanation of the purpose of the study.Results: The survey was applied to 118 fifth year medical students. The most significant finding of the study was the increase in number of students choosing psychiatry (17%) as a possible career upon completion of the attachment as compared to before (4%). The majority of the students considered psychiatry as a mainstream specialty with little change in this perception pre and post attachment. Almost all of the students believed that a psychiatry posting would improve their communication skills when dealing with patients.Approximately half of students chose medical subspecialties as career choice prior to their psychiatry posting but this declined afterwards. There was a small increase in the number of students wanting to become GPs and those who were undecided about their potential career choice.With regards to deterrents to doing psychiatry, the principal one was the belief that psychiatry was too depressing and stressful. Lack of interest, adverse career prospects and financial considerations featured in a minority of student answers.Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that psychiatry remains less attractive to students as a career compared to some other specialities but a clinical attachment may be an important means of raising interest in psychiatry as a career.

scholarly journals A survey of communication skills teaching at medical school

2006 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 84-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Raftery ◽  
Particia Scowen
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Undergraduate Education ◽  
General Medical Council ◽  
Skills Assessment ◽  
Medical Council ◽  
Surgical Practice ◽  
Essential Component

Communication is an essential component of surgical practice. Awareness of its importance is increasing among surgeons due to both the association between litigation and poor communication and recent requirements for obtaining informed consent. The General Medical Council has stated that medical students should have acquired and demonstrated their proficiency in communication by the end of their undergraduate education. Furthermore, communication skills assessment is now a pass/fail component of the intercollegiate MRCS examination of the surgical royal colleges.

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

BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. e022201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Seng Esmond Seow ◽  
Boon Yiang Chua ◽  
Rathi Mahendran ◽  
Swapna Verma ◽  
Hui Lin Ong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Career Choice ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Psychiatric Training ◽  
Outcome Variable ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
School Factors ◽  
Cross Sectional

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 Χ2test 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.

scholarly journals Career Choice and Influential Factors Among Medical Students Majoring in Psychiatry in China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying-Jian Zhang ◽  
Yuan Kai ◽  
Su-hua Chang ◽  
Wei Yan ◽  
Jian-Yu Que ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Career Choice ◽  
Clinical Medicine ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Personal Interest ◽  
Modifiable Factors ◽  
First Choice ◽  
Mental Problems

Abstract BackgroundThe undergraduate program of psychiatry has been widely established in recent years to improve the education and recruitment of psychiatrists in China. We aim to investigate the career choice of medical students majoring in psychiatry in China and the influential factors.MethodThis multicenter study was conducted in 26 medical schools in China that offered undergraduate education in psychiatry in 2019. Participants included 4610 medical students majoring in psychiatry and 3857 medical students majoring in clinical medicine. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate the influential factors of students’ choices of psychiatry at matriculation and as a career.Results44.08% of psychiatry majored students gave psychiatry as a first choice at matriculation, and 56.67% of them would choose psychiatry as a career, which was in sharp contrast to the proportion of clinical medicine majored students who would choose psychiatry as a career (0.69%). Personal interest (59.61%), suggestions from family members (27.96%), and experiencing mental problems (23.19%) were main reasons for choosing psychiatry major at matriculation. Personal interest (odds ratio [OR] = 2.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.87-2.40), experiencing a psychiatry clerkship (OR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.28-3.08), being female (OR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.30-1.68), experiencing mental problems (OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.28-1.56), and suggestions from family members (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.08-1.46) correlated positively with students’ choice of psychiatry as career. Students who lacked psychiatry knowledge (OR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.29-0.85) or chose psychiatry because of lower admission scores (OR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.63-0.97) were less likely to choose psychiatry as a career.ConclusionMore than half of psychiatry majored medical school students planned to choose psychiatry as their career, whereas very few students in the clinic medicine major would make this choice. Increasing students’ interest in psychiatry, strengthening psychiatry clerkships, and popularizing psychiatric knowledge are modifiable factors to increase the psychiatry career intention. The extent to which medical students’ attitudes toward psychiatry can be changed through medical school education and greater exposure to psychiatry will need further investigation.

scholarly journals Relationship between Canadian medical school student career interest in emergency medicine and post-graduate training disposition

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. e4-12
Author(s):  
Riyad Abu-Laban ◽  
Ian Scott ◽  
Margot Gowans
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Medicine ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Career Choice ◽  
Residency Program ◽  
Postgraduate Training ◽  
Early Career ◽  
School Entry ◽  
Career Interest ◽  
Canadian Medical School

Background: Canada has two independent routes of emergency medicine (EM) training and certification. This unique situation may encourage medical students with EM career aspirations to apply to family medicine (FM) residencies to subsequently acquire College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) training and certification in EM. We sought answers to the following: 1) Are medical students who indicate EM as their top career choice on medical school entry, and then complete a FM residency, more likely to undertake subsequent CFPC-EM training than other FM residents who did not indicate EM as their top career choice; and 2) What are the characteristics of medical students in four predefined groups, based upon their early interest in EM as a career and ultimate postgraduate training disposition.Methods: Data were accessed from a survey of medical students in 11 medical school classes from eight Canadian universities and anonymously linked to information from the Canadian Residency Matching Service between 2006 and 2009.Results: Of 1036 participants, 63 (6.1%) named EM as their top career choice on medical school entry. Of these, 10 ultimately matched to a Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) EM residency program, and 24 matched to a FM residency program, nine of whom went on to do a one-year CFPC-EM residency program in contrast to 57 of the remaining 356 students matching to FM residency programs who did not indicate EM was their top career choice (37.5% vs 16.0%, p=0.007). Statistically significant attitudinal differences related to the presence or absence of EM career interest on medical school entry were found.Conclusion: Considering those who complete CFPC-EM training, a greater proportion indicate on admission to medical school that EM is their top career choice compared to those who do not. Moreover, students with an early career interest in EM are similar for several attitudinal factors independent of their ultimate postgraduate training disposition. Given the current issues and challenges facing FM and EM, these findings have implications that merit consideration by both the CFPC and the RCPSC.

The Pediatrician as a Role Model in the Career Choice of Medical Students

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-365
Author(s):  
JAMES E. STRAIN
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Career Choice ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Medical Schools ◽  
Medical Graduates ◽  
Foreign Medical Graduates

The results of the recent residency matching program revealed a decline in the number of US medical school graduates applying for positions in pediatric training programs. In 1987, 1366 graduating seniors, 10% of the graduating class, applied for 2009 PL 1 positions. In 1989, 1256, 9.3% of those graduating, applied for 2068 positions. Sixty-eight percent of PL 1 positions were filled by graduates of US medical schools in 1987, and an additional 14% (284) by foreign medical graduates.

scholarly journals Have medical students’ attitudes towards clinical communication skills changed over a 12- year period? A comparative long-term study

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Gude ◽  
Reidar Tyssen ◽  
Tor Anvik ◽  
Hilde Grimstad ◽  
Are Holen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Integrated Curriculum ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Traditional Curriculum ◽  
Clinical Communication ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Students Attitudes

Abstract Background Attitudes towards learning clinical communication skills at the end of medical school are likely to reflect the students’ training and motivation for the continued development of their skills as doctors. Students from two Norwegian medical schools, one with a traditional, and the other with an integrated curriculum, were approached in 2003 and 2015; with regard to changes in students’ attitudes towards acquiring communication skills in two diverse learning environments. This comparison might reveal the effects of the training programs from a long-term perspective, as neither of the medical schools made any major curriculum changes within the study period. Methods The samples comprised final-year medical students. Two separate cross-sectional surveys performed 12 years apart (2003 and 2015) used items from the Communication Skills Attitude Scale in addition to age and gender. The traditional curriculum included only theoretical teaching and no contact with patients was made during the first 2 to 2.5 years of medical school. However, the integrated curriculum combined training in theoretical and clinical communication skills with early patient contact from the beginning. Results Attitudes improved from the first to the second survey at both schools, however, students from the integrated school reported more positive attitudes than those from the traditional school. Female students from the integrated school contributed the most to the difference in attitudes in both surveys. Conclusions Students in both traditional and integrated curricula improved their attitudes from the first to the second assessment. However, compared with the traditional curriculum, the integrated one fostered even higher levels of positive attitudes towards acquiring communication skills, and a pronounced influence was observed on female students. These findings suggest that an educational program with greater emphasis on improving attitudes among male students may be required.

scholarly journals Professor Haughton

1898 ◽  
Vol 44 (184) ◽  
pp. 222-223
Keyword(s):  
Medical School ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Trinity College ◽  
Active Part ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Great Work ◽  
Trinity College Dublin ◽  
Early Success ◽  
Public Spirit ◽  
The University

By the death of Professor Haughton, which took place on October 31, 1897, the University of Dublin has lost one of its most remarkable ornaments and Irish social life one of its most striking figures. Haughton was a man who, under more favourable circumstances (viz., most especially if he had been blessed with a lesser measure of early success), might have been capable of almost any intellectual feat. His versatility and the agility of his intelligence alone amounted to genius. In the humdrum region of university teaching in which unhappily he early lost himself he always seemed the most brilliant pioneer. Unfortunately he yielded to the temptations—to diffusion and lack of concentration—to which a versatile genius is particularly exposed, and consequently he did not really lead in any of the numerous subjects which he illuminated. One example is afforded by his ill-fated remark on Darwin's epoch-making work that it contained nothing new that was true and nothing true that was new. Haughton's knowledge, often profound, always acute, dies with him, for he has written little that will last: his sparkling wit and genial good-fellowship will survive in the memory of those who were favoured with his personal acquaintance. One great work will, we hope, long bear testimony to his zeal for knowledge and his disinterested public spirit. To him is due the revival of the so-called “School of Physic in Ireland” (Medical School of Trinity College, Dublin), and we trust the debt which that school owes him will never be forgotten. Dr. Haughton exhibited much interest in the work of our Association at the Dublin meeting of 1894, though the feeble condition of his health even then precluded his taking any active part in our proceedings.

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