ArticleThe British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science2013
Choice and rejection of psychiatry as a career: surveys of UK medical graduates from 1974 to 2009.
Article in The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- Attitudes and Career Preferences Towards Psychiatry in South Asia: A Narrative Review of Medical Student and Physician Perspectives.Health science reports · 2026Article
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- What the next generation of doctors want from a career in psychiatry: longitudinal survey of UK trainees and medical students.BJPsych bulletin · 2026Article
- Attitudes of final-year medical students towards psychiatry as a specialisation at a university in South Africa.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2026Article
- Explicating the implicit: An Australian medical student's reflection on the Perspectives of Psychiatry Program for International Learners (PoPPIL).Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists · 2025Article
- Factors Affecting Specialty Training Preference Among UK Medical Students (FAST): Protocol for a National Cross-Sectional Survey.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- Career intentions of medical students in the UK: a national, cross-sectional study (AIMS study).BMJ open · 2023Article
- Using socially distanced and online simulation training to improve the confidence of junior doctors in psychiatry.BJPsych bulletin · 2023Article
- Ascertaining the Career Intentions of Medical Students (AIMS) in the United Kingdom Post Graduation: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- Factors that influence psychiatric trainees' choice of higher training specialty: mixed-methods study.BJPsych bulletin · 2023Article
- Factors associated with interest in psychiatry in UK medical students: qualitative study.BJPsych bulletin · 2023Article
- Uncovering trends in training progression for a national cohort of psychiatry trainees: discrete-time survival analysis.BJPsych open · 2021Article
- Perspectives of GCSE students attending a psychiatry summer school in south London.BJPsych bulletin · 2021Article
- Career choice and influential factors among medical students majoring in psychiatry in China.BMC medical education · 2021Article
- Who wants to be a psychiatrist? Northern Ireland foundation doctors (2006-2018) are positive toward psychiatry as career choice.BJPsych bulletin · 2020Article
- Changing attitudes to psychiatry and interest in the specialty as a career choice during clinical undergraduate years at a medical school in Penang, Malaysia.Irish journal of medical science · 2020Article
- Sociodemographic and educational characteristics of doctors applying for psychiatry training in the UK: secondary analysis of data from the UK Medical Education Database project.BJPsych bulletin · 2019Article
- Accuracy of prescribing documentation by UK junior doctors undertaking psychiatry placements: a multi-centre observational study.BMC research notes · 2019Observational
- Recruitment to psychiatry: a global problem.BJPsych international · 2019Article
- Factors associated with medical students' choice of psychiatry as future specialty: a cross-sectional study.Advances in medical education and practice · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRecruitment of adequate numbers of doctors to psychiatry is difficult.
aimsTo report on career choice for psychiatry, comparing intending psychiatrists with doctors who chose other clinical careers.
methodQuestionnaire studies of all newly qualified doctors from all UK medical schools in 12 qualification years between 1974 and 2009 (33 974 respondent doctors).
resultsOne, three and five years after graduation, 4-5% of doctors specified psychiatry as their first choice of future career. This was largely unchanged across the 35 years. Comparing intending psychiatrists with doctors who chose other careers, factors with a greater influence on psychiatrists' choice included their experience of the subject at medical school, self-appraisal of their own skills, and inclinations before medical school. In a substudy of doctors who initially considered but then did not pursue specialty choices, 72% of those who did not pursue psychiatry gave 'job content' as their reason compared with 33% of doctors who considered but did not pursue other specialties. Historically, more women than men have chosen psychiatry, but the gap has closed over the past decade.
conclusionsJunior doctors' views about psychiatry as a possible career range from high levels of enthusiasm to antipathy, and are more polarised than views about other specialties. Shortening of working hours and improvements to working practices in other hospital-based specialties in the UK may have reduced the relative attractiveness of psychiatry to women doctors. The extent to which views of newly qualified doctors about psychiatry can be modified by medical school education, and by greater exposure to psychiatry during student and early postgraduate years, needs investigation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.