Does access to role models influence future career choice? Impact of psychiatry teaching on recently graduated doctors in the United Kingdom.

OBJECTIVE

The authors determined who provides formal psychiatry teaching to newly-qualified doctors and whether the amount of such teaching correlates to a later career preference for psychiatry.

METHODS

Data were collected on the cohort starting work in 2010 until applying to a specialty training program 16 months later. Total hours of psychiatry teaching was compared with the number choosing a residency in the same specialty.

RESULTS

A total of 19 hospitals in northwest England provided teaching programs for their interns and first-year residents (U.K. foundation doctors); 15 provided information on doctors' later specialty choice. Only 2.3% of teaching was dedicated to psychiatry. Doctors led a higher proportion of medicine or surgery sessions (63%) than those on psychiatry (48%). Provision of psychiatry teaching was associated with entering psychiatry residency.

CONCLUSIONS

Hospitals providing the most formal psychiatry training have the highest proportions matriculating into a psychiatry residency.