Who wants to do psychiatry?

Abstract

Aims and MethodThe study aimed to determine whether medical students who participated in a student psychotherapy scheme aimed at helping them learn about the doctor-patient relationship were more likely to choose psychiatry as a career than a control group who did not participate. One hundred and ninety-eight medical students who participated in the University College and Middlesex School of Medicine (UCMSM) Psychotherapy Scheme between 1982 and 1992, and 200 randomly selected students of the same period who did not, were sent a questionnaire asking about career choice.ResultsSeventy-seven of 163 participants in the scheme who sent back the questionnaire had not thought about doing psychiatry before entering the scheme. Of these, 11 became psychiatrists (14.3%), compared with only two (1.6%) of the 128 controls (of 152 respondents) who had not considered psychiatry as a career at the same stage. This difference is highly significant (P<0.001). Many of the participants, including those who did not specialise in psychiatry, emphasised how the scheme had helped them understand the doctor-patient relationship.ImplicationsParticipating in the Student Psychotherapy Scheme encouraged medical students to choose psychiatry as a career. This knowledge is important, particularly in view of the current recruitment crisis in psychiatry.

Parity of esteem within the biopsychosocial model: is psychiatry still a psychological profession?

“…Students who participate in a psychotherapy scheme (in which they are involved in delivering weekly psychotherapy for a patient under supervision, as part of learning about emotional aspects of the doctor–patient relationship) are significantly more likely to choose psychiatry as a career, even those who were not previously interested in psychiatry. 13 Doctors thinking of joining the specialty still think of psychiatrists as mostly listening and talking to their patients towards developing a deeper understanding of their difficulties and histories. We lose this at our peril.…”