Skip to main content

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
Cancel
×
×
Home
  • Home
Article
  • Access
  • Open access

Systematic review into factors associated with the recruitment crisis in psychiatry in the UK: students', trainees' and consultants' views

  • Abid Choudry (a1) and Saeed Farooq (a2) (a3)
Abstract
Aims and method

To review the literature to examine the factors that may be affecting recruitment into psychiatry in the UK. We systematically searched four databases to identify studies from 1974 to 2016 and identified 27 papers that met the specified inclusion criteria.

 Results

Most papers (n = 24) were based on questionnaire surveys. The population in all studies comprised of 1879 psychiatrists, 6733 students and 220746 trainees. About 4–7% of students opt for a career in psychiatry. Enrichment activities helped to attract students more towards psychiatry than just total time spent in the specialty. Job content in terms of the lack of scientific basis, poor prognosis and stigma towards psychiatry, work-related stress and problems with training jobs were common barriers highlighted among students and trainees, affecting recruitment. Job satisfaction and family-friendly status of psychiatry was rated highly by students, with lifestyle factors appearing to be important for trainees who tend to choose psychiatry.

 Clinical implications

Negative attitudes and stigma towards psychiatry continue to persist. Teaching and training in psychiatry needs rethinking to improve student experience and recruitment into the specialty.
      • Send article to Kindle

      To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about sending to your Kindle.

      Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

      Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

      Systematic review into factors associated with the recruitment crisis in psychiatry in the UK: students', trainees' and consultants' views
      Available formats
      ×
      Send article to Dropbox

      To send this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Dropbox.

      Systematic review into factors associated with the recruitment crisis in psychiatry in the UK: students', trainees' and consultants' views
      Available formats
      ×
      Send article to Google Drive

      To send this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Google Drive.

      Systematic review into factors associated with the recruitment crisis in psychiatry in the UK: students', trainees' and consultants' views
      Available formats
      ×
Copyright
COPYRIGHT: © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2017
This is an open-access article published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Corresponding author
Abid Choudry (abidchoudry@doctors.org.uk)
Footnotes
Hide All

Declaration of interest

None.

Footnotes
References
Hide All
1 Centre for Workforce Intelligence. In-depth Review of the Psychiatrist Workforce: Main Report. CFWI, 2014.
2 Centre for Workforce Intelligence. Shape of the Medical Workforce: Informing Medical Training Numbers. Centre for Workforce Intelligence, 2011.
3 Royal College of Psychiatrists. Census 2009: Workforce Figures for Psychiatrists. Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2010.
4 Carr, A, Sullivan, E, Buggle, S, Hamilton, P. Specialty training at ST1 and CT1 in England. BMJ Careers 2011; 30 Nov. Available at: http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/view-article.html?id=20005662 (accessed 27 June 2017).
5 Royal College of Psychiatrists. Fill Rate and Competition Ratios for CT1 August 2012 Intake. Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2012 (http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/trainpsychiatry/nationalrecruitment/fillratesandcompetition.aspx).
6 Brown, T, Eagles, J. Teaching Psychiatry to Undergraduates. RCPsych Publications, 2011.
7 Gask, L, Coskun, B, Baron, D. Teaching Psychiatry: Putting Theory into Practice. Wiley, 2011.
8 Royal College of Psychiatrists. Recruitment Strategy 2011–2016. Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2012.
9 Brockington, IF, Mumford, DB. Recruitment into psychiatry. Br J Psychiatry 2002; 180: 307–12.
10 Barkil-Oteo, A. Psychiatry's identity crisis. Lancet 2012; 379: 2428.
11 Moher, D, Liberati, A, Tetzlaff, J, Altman, DG. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. Ann Intern Med 2009; 151: 264–9.
12 Burra, P, Kalin, R, Leichner, PW, Waldron, JJ, Handforth, JR, Jarrett, FJ, et al. The ATP 30 – a scale for measuring medical students' attitudes to psychiatry. Med Educ 1982; 16: 31–8.
13 Fazel, S, Ebmeier, KP. Specialty choice in UK junior doctors: is psychiatry the least popular specialty for UK and international medical graduates? BMC Med Educ 2009; 9: 77.
14 Goldacre, MJ, Turner, G, Fazel, S, Lambert, T. Career choices for psychiatry: national surveys of graduates of 1974–2000 from UK medical schools. Br J Psychiatry 2005; 186: 158–64.
15 Lambert, TW, Turner, G, Fazel, S, Goldacre, MJ. Reasons why some UK medical graduates who initially choose psychiatry do not pursue it as a long-term career. Psychol Med 2006; 36: 679–84.
16 Goldacre, MJ, Goldacre, R, Lambert, TW. Doctors who considered but did not pursue specific clinical specialties as careers: questionnaire surveys. J R Soc Med 2012; 105: 166–76.
17 Goldacre, MJ, Fazel, S, Smith, F, Lambert, T. Choice and rejection of psychiatry as a career: surveys of UK medical graduates from 1974 to 2009. Br J Psychiatry 2013; 202: 228–34.
18 Svirko, E, Goldacre, MJ, Lambert, T. Career choices of the United Kingdom medical graduates of 2005, 2008 and 2009: questionnaire surveys. Med Teach 2013; 35: 365–75.
19 Brook, PE. Where do psychiatrists come from? The influence of United Kingdom medical schools on the choice of psychiatry as a career. Br J Psychiatry 1976; 128: 313–7.
20 Brook, P, Ingleby, D, Wakeford, RE. Students' attitudes to psychiatry: a study of first-and final-year clinical students' attitudes in six medical schools. J Psychiatr Educ 1986; 3: 151–69.
21 Brook, P. Who's for psychiatry? United Kingdom medical schools and career choice of psychiatry 1961–75. Br J Psychiatry 1983; 142: 361–5.
22 Collier, A, Moreton, A. Does access to role models influence future career choice? Impact of psychiatry teaching on recently graduated doctors in the United Kingdom. Acad Psychiatry 2013; 37: 408–11.
23 Petrides, KV, McManus, IC. Mapping medical careers: questionnaire assessment of career preferences in medical school applicants and final-year students. BMC Med Educ 2004; 4: 18.
24 Levine, SP, Barzansky, B, Blumberg, P, Flaherty, JA. Can psychiatrists be recruited in medical school? J Psychiatr Educ 1983; 7: 240–8.
25 Curtis-Barton, MT, Eagles, JM. Factors that discourage medical students from pursuing a career in psychiatry. Psychiatrist 2011; 35: 425–9.
26 Budd, S, Kelley, R, Day, R, Variend, H, Dogra, N. Student attitudes to psychiatry and their clinical placements. Med Teach 2011; 33: e586–92.
27 Farooq, K, Lydall, GJ, Malik, A, Ndetei, DM, Bhugra, D. Why medical students choose psychiatry – a 20 country cross-sectional survey. BMC Med Educ 2014; 14: 12.
28 Haider, N, Hadjidemetriou, C, Pearson, R, Farooq, K, Lydall, GJ, Malik, A, et al. Student career choice in psychiatry: findings from 18 UK medical schools. Int Rev Psychiatry 2013; 25: 438–44.
29 Maidment, R, Livingston, G, Katona, M, Whitaker, E, Katona, C. Carry on shrinking: career intentions and attitudes to psychiatry of prospective medical students. Psychiatrist 2003; 27: 30–2.
30 McParland, M, Noble, LM, Livingston, G, McManus, C. The effect of a psychiatric attachment on students' attitudes to and intention to pursue psychiatry as a career. Med Educ 2003; 37: 447–54.
31 Maidment, R, Livingston, G, Katona, C, McParland, M, Noble, L. Change in attitudes to psychiatry and intention to pursue psychiatry as a career in newly qualified doctors: a follow-up of two cohorts of medical students. Med Teach 2004; 26: 565–9.
32 Denman, M, Oyebode, F, Greening, J. Reasons for choosing to specialise in psychiatry: differences between core psychiatry trainees and consultant psychiatrists. BJPsych Bull 2016; 40: 19–23.
33 Calvert, SH, Sharpe, M, Power, M, Lawrie, SM. Does undergraduate education have an effect on Edinburgh medical students' attitudes to psychiatry and psychiatric patients? J Nerv Merit Dis 1999; 187: 757–61.
34 Archdall, C, Atapattu, T, Anderson, E. Qualitative study of medical students' experiences of a psychiatric attachment. Psychiatrist 2013; 37: 21–4.
35 Rajagopal, S, Rehill, KS, Godfrey, E. Psychiatry as a career choice compared with other specialties: a survey of medical students. Psychiatrist 2004; 28: 444–6.
36 Korszun, A, Dharmaindra, N, Koravangattu, V, Bhui, K. Teaching medical students and recruitment to psychiatry: attitudes of psychiatric clinicians, academics and trainees. Psychiatrist 2011; 35: 350–3.
37 Woolf, K, Elton, C, Newport, M. The specialty choices of graduates from Brighton and Sussex Medical School: a longitudinal cohort study. SMC Med Educ 2015; 15: 46.
38 Barras, C, Harris, J. Psychiatry recruited you, but will it retain you? Survey of trainees' opinions. Psychiatrist 2012; 36: 71–7.
39 Dein, K, Livingston, G, Bench, C. ‘Why did I become a psychiatrist?’: survey of consultant psychiatrists. Psychiatrist 2007; 31: 227–30.
40 Lyons, Z. Attitudes of medical students toward psychiatry and psychiatry as a career: a systematic review. Acad Psychiatry 2013; 37: 150–7.
41 Qureshi, H, Carney, S, Iversen, A. Narrative review of the impact of clinical psychiatry attachments on attitudes to psychiatry. Psychiatrist 2013; 37: 104–10.
42 El-Sayeh, HG, Budd, S, Waller, R, Holmes, J. How to win the hearts and minds of students in psychiatry. Advan Psychiatr Treat 2006; 12: 182–92.
43 Mukherjee, K, Maier, M, Wessely, S. UK crisis in recruitment into psychiatric training. Psychiatrist 2013; 37: 210–4.
44 Shah, P, Brown, T, Eagles, J. Choosing psychiatry: factors influencing career choice among foundation doctors in Scotland. In Teaching Psychiatry to Undergraduates (eds Brown, T, Eagles, J): 255–63. RCPsych Publications, 2011.
45 Kelley, TA, Brown, J, Carney, S. Foundation Programme psychiatry placement and doctors' decision to pursue a career in psychiatry. Psychiatrist 2013; 37: 30–2.
46 Greening, J, Tarn, M, Purkis, J. How to run a psychiatry summer school. Psychiatrist 2013; 37: 65–71.
47 Ajaz, A, David, R, Brown, D, Smuk, M, Korszun, A. BASH: badmouthing, attitudes and stigmatisation in healthcare as experienced by medical students. BJPsych Bull 2016; 40: 97–102.
48 Ahmed, K, Bennett, DM, Haider, N, Byrne, P. Medfest: the effect of a national medical film festival on attendees' attitudes to psychiatry and psychiatrists and medical students' attitudes to a career in psychiatry. Acad Psychiatry 2015; 39: 335–8.
49 Kerby, J, Calton, T, Dimambro, B, Flood, C, Glazebrook, C. Anti-stigma films and medical students' attitudes towards mental illness and psychiatry: randomised controlled trial. Psychiatrist 2008; 32: 345–9.
Recommend this journal

Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this journal to your organisation's collection.

BJPsych Bulletin
  • ISSN: 2056-4694
  • EISSN: 2056-4708
  • URL: /core/journals/bjpsych-bulletin
Please enter your name
Please enter a valid email address
Who would you like to send this to? *

CAPTCHA *

Skip to the audio challenge
×

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 49 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 137 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between 2nd January 2018 - 22nd April 2018. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

  • Access
  • Open access

Systematic review into factors associated with the recruitment crisis in psychiatry in the UK: students', trainees' and consultants' views

  • Abid Choudry (a1) and Saeed Farooq (a2) (a3)
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.

×

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

Conflicting interests

Do you have any conflicting interests? *

Cancel
Confirm
×