Training and retaining mental health professionals: The Romanian experience in the European Union

Abstract

Background: Romania has been a member of the European Union since 2007.According to the World Health Organization, the national burden of mental disorders is high, with 2743.69 disability-adjusted life years per 100.000 population. Moreover, in a country of 19 million people, Romania's mental health system is currently functioning at capacity, with 5.66 adult psychiatrists/100.000 population and only 0.56 child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) doctors per 100.000 population. Method: we conducted a simple narrative review of the current literature on the topic of training of psychiatry trainees in Romania. Results: Undergraduate training consists of only 4 weeks of clinical and theoretical work for adult and CAP. Psychiatry postgraduate training lasts 5 years and is still duration-oriented. Psychiatric trainees mostly spend their clinical work in inpatient units due to the scarcity of other services or the lack of integration of training programs in the existing psychiatric services. Theoretical training is not nationally formalized, and, during training, yearly assessments tend to be neglected. An ongoing challenge in Romania has been retaining young career psychiatrists. Conclusion:Although in a trend toward improvement of health services, "brain drain" has been and continues to be a massive phenomenon among Romanian psychiatrists, mainly driven to Western-European countries due to financial reasons, various shortcomings in overall infrastructure, and because of the lack of continuous professional and personal development opportunities. As the world is currently facing an unprecedented mental health crisis, steps must be taken to improve psychiatric training, retain psychiatrists in Romania, and provide better national mental health services.

Порівняльний Аналіз Методів Професійного Саморозвитку Психологів В Країнах Єс

“…Здебільшого вони виїжджають до країн Західної Європи з економічних причин, різних недоліків загальної інфраструктури та браку можливостей для безперервного професійного й особистісного розвитку. Нині світ стикається з безпрецедентною кризою психічного здоров'я, тому необхідно вжити заходів для поліпшення освіти та забезпечення кваліфікованими працівниками [5]. Відтак, успішний професійний розвиток психолога пов'язаний із соціально-комунікативної компетентності особистості.…”

“…Актуальність сучасної проблеми вдосконалення підготовки психологів у країнах ЄС проаналізовано в працях Tabachnikov [4], Brittlebank [1], Giurgiuca [5], Brittlebank [1], Laireiter [2]; розвиток професійної ідентичності розглянуто в роботах Zaverukha [6], Алєксєєвої [7] та Пророка [8]; дослідження адаптаційних процесів та критеріїв розвитку проводили Blynova [14], Koltsova [10]; компетентності та професійному розвитку присвячені дослідження Tabachnikov та Борзова [4; 11]; Пророк запропонував технології професійного розвитку [8]; Hart, Zhang розробили різни види курсів [12; 13].…”

Education and training in psychiatry in low‐ and middle‐income countries during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…In this special issue of Asia-Pacific Psychiatry, the WPA Section on Education in Psychiatry has collected contributions from researchers and scholars from different parts of the world, specifically focusing on the quality of training in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) (Kallyvayallil & Enara, 2021). This issue includes also the views of early career psychiatrists on difficulties and advantages of being trained in psychiatry in LMICs (El Halabi et al, 2021;Mihai et al, 2021;Giurgiuca et al, 2021;Sahadevan et al, 2021). A specific paper deals with education on addiction psychiatry, a neglected topic in the scientific literature, but which is particularly relevant for psychiatric practice in LMICs (Balhara et al, 2021).…”

“…A specific paper deals with education on addiction psychiatry, a neglected topic in the scientific literature, but which is particularly relevant for psychiatric practice in LMICs (Balhara et al, 2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on training and education in psychiatry (Fiorillo & Gorwood, 2020;Gorwood & Fiorillo, 2021;Kuzman et al, 2020;Wasserman et al, 2020), which has been particularly significant in LMICs (Banerjee et al, 2020;De Sousa et al, 2020;Javed et al, 2021), has been further analyzed by Kalayasiri and Wainipitapong (2021). The results of an online survey carried out by the WPA Section on Education in Psychiatry under the supervision of the WPA President Elect, Prof. Danuta Wasserman, on the actual educational needs of Member Societies and WPA Zones, are also presented (Sampogna et al, 2021).…”