ArticleAcademic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry2025
Medical Students' Attitudes Toward a Career in Psychiatry: A Realist Evaluation.
Article in Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Influence of personality traits and clinical role models on changes in medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry: a prospective moderation analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Organ-system-based psychiatry education in undergraduate medicine: learning outcomes and specialty choice.BMC medical education · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThere is a global recruitment crisis in psychiatry, with insufficient medical students choosing this specialty as their medical career. Previous research describes multiple interacting factors that may influence medical students' attitudes toward a psychiatry career but not which are most important for whom, in what respects, and in what contexts, nor how they interact to shape attitudes. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a theory to explain the complex factors shaping medical students' attitudes toward a psychiatry career.
methodsThis realist evaluation involved three phases: phase 1 was the development of an initial program theory from published literature; in phase 2, a final program theory was developed from realist interviews with 31 UK medical students; in phase 3, evidence-based recommendations were developed.
resultsThis study identified seven important contexts (positive personal experiences of mental health services; exposure to multiple psychiatry subspecialties as undergraduates; positive experiences on psychiatry placement; perceived good work-life balance for psychiatrists; perceived danger from psychiatric patients; perceived poor patient prognoses; perceived negative emotions evoked through work) and six important mechanisms (being inspired to make a difference; being interested in psychiatry; seeing psychiatry as aligned with desired lifestyle; being concerned about safety; feeling unable to make a difference; being concerned about emotional burden). These contexts and mechanisms interacted to shape positive or negative attitudes toward a psychiatry career.
conclusionsBased on the findings, the authors recommend more pre-clinical psychiatry placements, exposure to passionate psychiatry teachers especially on psychiatry placements, and a focus on retention of interested students.
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