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Commentary and Debate
qualification, doctors surveyed reported
work experience as being a more
important determinant of career choice
when choosing psychiatry than with
other specialties (Goldacre 2005). This
would indicate that foundation posts in
psychiatry may have a positive effect on
recruitment, and this has been borne out
to some extent (Boyle et al, 2009). Even
where a doctor is unable to work in a
foundation post, tasters in psychiatry can
be organized as part of the foundation
programme in order to give the
foundation some additional experience
of psychiatry.
Unfortunately, doctors’ experiences of
psychiatry if they are not doing a
foundation post may be limited to
occasional acute presentations, which if
they do not have access to a psychiatric
liaison service may be very difficult and
frustrating to manage. Liaison psychiatry
services, where they exist, may present
valuable opportunities for psychiatrists to
demonstrate the relevance of the specialty
across all branches of medicine, to portray
a positive image of psychiatry to our nonpsychiatric
colleagues as well as to
educate and motivate those doctors who
are as yet undecided in their career choice
towards considering psychiatry as a career.
In summary, the major possible targets for
recruitment into psychiatry would appear
to be improving undergraduate experience
in a variety of ways, maximising positive
exposure to psychiatry during the
foundation years, and supporting those
who show an interest in psychiatry early
on. Ideally any strategy should be coupled
with an overarching aim to increase the
profile and awareness of the importance
and validity of psychiatry as a profession
amongst the lay population as well as the
medical community.
So what has been done to address the
problem? The Royal College of
Psychiatrists has taken urgent steps by
means of a Scoping Group on
Undergraduate Education in Psychiatry,
which has helped to develop a core
curriculum for undergraduate psychiatry.
Work is also being done with the
Academic Faculty and the Association of
University Teachers of Psychiatry to address
issues within the undergraduate
experience that adversely affect the image
of psychiatry (Brown et al, 2009).
The Royal College has also prioritised a
process of engaging more closely with
medical students. A student associate
grade has been introduced, whereby
interested students can sign up to the
Royal College for free and gain access to
various resources, such as electronic
versions of the Royal College’s
publications, a dedicated section of the
Royal College website, reduced prices for
college events and a variety of other
benefits. An annual summer school has
been organised in collaboration with the
Institute of Psychiatry and South London
and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
A lot of this work has been done with the
help of the Psychiatric Trainees
Committee, who have also embarked on a
project of developing student psychiatry
societies in each medical school across the
UK. These societies, with the support of
local consultants, academic departments
and trainees, aim to foster interest and
raise the profile of psychiatry within
medical schools by means of talks, careers
events and educational meetings (Royal
College of Psychiatrists, 2008).
There is an additional aim to expand the
numbers of foundation posts available
within psychiatry, however this will require
extensive negotiation and planning with
the Foundation Schools and is an ongoing
project. The Psychiatric Trainees
Committee is also developing an e-
learning project to enable foundation
doctors to develop psychiatry
competencies, which will be mapped to
the new foundation curriculum, and with
an emphasis on the overlap of psychiatric
problems and physical health problems.
This project endeavours to increase the
resources available for foundation doctors
to further their understanding of the
relevance of psychiatry to the medical
profession as a whole.
26 Surrey and Borders Online Journal www.sabp.nhs.uk/journal