Abstract
Aims and methodThis study analyses whether there is a relationship between a psychiatry placement during the UK Foundation Programme and appointment to psychiatry training. A survey was distributed to all foundation year 2 doctors in the UK to determine how many have exposure to psychiatry before specialty applications and whether such exposure correlates with choosing psychiatry as a career.ResultsThe study showed that 14.6% of foundation doctors had exposure to psychiatry prior to specialty applications. Of these, 14.9% chose psychiatry as a career in contrast to only 1.8% of those who did not have psychiatry exposure (χ2P = 0.0008; risk ratio 8.19).Clinical implicationsThis study adds weight to calls to increase the proportion of psychiatry posts in the Foundation Programme as part of a broader strategy to improve recruitment. To answer this question categorically, we suggest a prospective cohort study looking at how attitudes and career preferences change with exposure to psychiatry posts.
Highlights
This study found a significant association between a foundation psychiatry placement and appointment to core psychiatric training
Significantly more doctors with a Foundation Programme placement in psychiatry go into psychiatry training compared with foundation doctors with no psychiatry placement
A third of those who did not have a psychiatry placement during their foundation training but chose core psychiatry training as their career destination had undertaken a taster in psychiatry
Summary
There were a total of 7301 FY2 doctors in these schools who successfully completed the Foundation Programme; 6913 (95%) responded to the questionnaire. It emerged that 937 doctors (13.6%) had a psychiatry placement and an additional 70 (1.0%) had a psychiatry taster prior to the specialty application period. Out of the 937 foundation doctors who had a psychiatry placement before applying for specialist positions, 140 (14.9%) subsequently entered core psychiatry training. Out of the 5976 foundation doctors who did not have a psychiatry placement, just 109 (1.8%) chose core psychiatry training (w2 P = 0.0008; risk ratio 8.19). Only 79 (1.1%) foundation doctors chose core psychiatry training without any prior foundation psychiatry exposure (Table 1)
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