Department of Neuropsychiatry, Sapporo Medical University, School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2009 Sep 28;3(1):30. doi: 10.1186/1753-2000-3-30.
Child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP), a subspecialty of psychiatry in Japan, is facing a serious workforce shortage. To resolve this situation, the Japanese government has organized a task force and has been working to increase psychiatrists' clinical skills to improve care for children and adolescents with mental health problems. Using an online questionnaire system, the authors have conducted a survey to investigate the perceptions, experiences, and interests of early-career psychiatrists in CAP.
The subjects of this study were 182 psychiatrists in Japan whose individual clinical experiences did not exceed 15 years. The authors of this study created an online questionnaire system and e-mailed the URL and login password to all subjects. Respondents anonymously answered the questions. Most questions required an answer indicating a level of agreement scored on a nine-point scale. Responding to the questionnaire was considered to constitute consent, and all respondents' privacy was carefully protected.
The mean age and clinical psychiatric experience of the subjects were found to be 33.1 +/- 4.5 years and 5.43 +/- 3.5 years, respectively. On a nine-point scale (with nine being the highest), experience and interest in CAP measured 3.05 +/- 1.9 and 5.34 +/- 2.5, respectively; further, these two factors showed significant correlation (r = 0.437, p < 0.0001). The mean score for the early-career psychiatrists' confidence in their ability to diagnose and appropriately treat was notably low, at 3.13 +/- 1.9.
Our results demonstrated that early-career psychiatrists self-evaluated their CAP clinical experience as insufficient, and these clinicians' CAP experiences and interests correlated significantly. Therefore, in order to improve child and adolescent medical care, we need to expose young psychiatrists to sufficient CAP cases and explore the factors that could attract them to this field.
儿童和青少年精神病学（CAP）是日本精神病学的一个分支，目前面临着严重的劳动力短缺问题。为了解决这一情况，日本政府组织了一个工作组，一直在努力提高精神科医生的临床技能，以改善对有心理健康问题的儿童和青少年的护理。作者使用在线问卷调查系统，对 CAP 领域的早期职业精神科医生的看法、经验和兴趣进行了调查。
本研究的对象是日本 182 名个人临床经验不超过 15 年的精神科医生。作者创建了一个在线问卷调查系统，并将 URL 和登录密码以电子邮件的形式发送给所有研究对象。回答问题时，调查对象匿名作答。大多数问题需要在九点量表上表明同意程度，得分从 1 到 9，分数越高表示越同意。回答问卷被视为同意，所有研究对象的隐私都得到了妥善保护。
研究对象的平均年龄和临床精神病学经验分别为 33.1 +/- 4.5 岁和 5.43 +/- 3.5 年。CAP 的经验和兴趣在九点量表上的评分分别为 3.05 +/- 1.9 和 5.34 +/- 2.5，两个因素呈显著正相关（r = 0.437，p < 0.0001）。早期职业精神科医生在诊断和适当治疗能力方面的信心平均得分为 3.13 +/- 1.9，得分明显较低。
研究结果表明，早期职业精神科医生自我评估 CAP 临床经验不足，这些临床医生的 CAP 经验和兴趣显著相关。因此，为了改善儿童和青少年的医疗服务，我们需要让年轻的精神科医生接触足够多的 CAP 病例，并探索吸引他们进入该领域的因素。
