Factors Affecting Medical Students' Selection of Canadian Psychiatric Residency Programs: Part II—Some Contemporary Issues

Abstract

A strong commitment to undergraduate teaching will improve the attractiveness of psychiatry as a career. This must include exposure of students to teachers who mentor practice patterns attuned to provincial mental health reforms, since government initiatives alone, developed to promote desired transitions in psychiatric care, will not influence training program choice.

The Relative Influence of Available Resources During the Residency Match: A National Survey of Canadian Medical Students

“…One study of psychiatry residents identified their involvement in a committed relationship as influential to program selection 20 ; however, no previous studies have reported the magnitude of influence of family/friends as demonstrated in this study. This highlights a challenge for recruitment strategies because family/friends are relatively external to the formal CaRMS application process, yet they are the most frequently consulted and are most influential in a candidate's decision-making process.…”

Factors affecting future choice of specialty among first-year medical students of the University of the West Indies, Trinidad

“…Ratings of attractiveness of each specialty with regard to various aspects were treated as continuous data 13 . Other ratings by students were treated as descriptive; these included which generic factors they considered important in their choice of a specialty, the degree to which they were considering various medical specialties as possible careers and their estimates of the degree to which others (e.g.…”

“…Multiple factors appear to influence specialty choice in medical students.These include gender and residency conditions (e.g. part‐time work and parental leave availability), 8 family background, parents' socio‐economic status, prestige, income and faculty role models, 9 a strong early interest and curiosity in the specialty, 10 controllable lifestyle versus non‐controllable lifestyle, 11 local market forces, 12 a committed relationship, 13 the influence of a faculty adviser 14 and the perception of employment availability. The final choice results from a complex interplay between extrinsic and intrinsic factors.…”

Beyond the Chalkboard: The Interacting Domains in Undergraduate Psychiatric Teaching

“…15 The same factors that influence student perceptions also affect the outcomes of individual teachers' efforts. For example, the analytically trained, the dynamically trained and the biologically orientated teacher could all have different approaches and emphases.…”