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Medical Students’ Perceptions of Psychiatry as a Career Choice

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Abstract

Objective

This study describes medical students’ perceptions of the field of psychiatry and identifies the impact of those perceptions on their career choices in order to explore the questions: Are we as a field doing all that we can to enhance the educational experience of all medical students, regardless of their career preferences? What are the most appropriate ways to encourage interested medical students that would allow for more targeted recruitment efforts toward the most receptive students?

Methods

Third-year (n = 131) and fourth-year medical students (n = 117) at a northeastern, urban, private university medical school completed anonymous self-report questionnaires. Students rated the impact of intellectual interest, status, earning potential healthcare reform quality of life satisfaction and stress of working with psychiatric patients on their consideration of a psychiatric career. Respondents were then systematically divided into two groups: 1) those who considered psychiatry as a possible career choice and 2) those who did not.

Results

When compared to students who had been coded as “not seriously considering” a career in psychiatry, students coded as “seriously considering” gave significantly higher positive ratings to the field’s intellectual content and quality of life. There were also significant differences between the groups regarding the satisfaction involved in working with psychiatric patients. Students from both groups were equally concerned about stress levels in the field.

Conclusions

Acknowledging, discussing, and providing a context for stressful experiences during the psychiatry clerkship are likely to bring about productive approaches to improve recruitment into the field as well as to improve all students’ psychiatric education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, #125, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Janis L. Cutler M.D.,  Sharon L. Alspector M.D. &  Kelli J. Harding M.D.

  2. College of Physicians, Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, USA

    Janis L. Cutler M.D.,  Sharon L. Alspector M.D. &  Kelli J. Harding M.D.

  3. Center for Education Research and Evaluation, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA

    Leslie L. Wright B.A. &  Mark J. Graham Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Janis L. Cutler M.D.
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  2. Sharon L. Alspector M.D.
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  3. Kelli J. Harding M.D.
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  4. Leslie L. Wright B.A.
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  5. Mark J. Graham Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janis L. Cutler M.D..

Additional information

The authors thank Drs. Jean Endicott, Eric Marcus, and Ronald Rieder for assistance with study design, Dr. John Nee for initial data analysis, Alex Weiss for design of the figures, and Edith White for manuscript preparation. They also acknowledge the insightful comments of the two anonymous reviewers, which improved the manuscript significantly.

This study was supported by a grant from the Frontier Fund.

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Cutler, J.L., Alspector, S.L., Harding, K.J. et al. Medical Students’ Perceptions of Psychiatry as a Career Choice. Acad Psychiatry 30, 144–149 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ap.30.2.144

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ap.30.2.144

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