Lau Timothy, Zamani Delara, Lee Elliott Kyung, Asli Khashayar D, Gill Jasbir, Brager Nancy, Hawa Raed, Song Wei-Yi, Gill Eunice, Fitzpatrick Renee, Menezes Natasja M, Pham Vu H, Douglass Alan Bruce, Allain Suzanne, Meterissian Greg B, Gagnon Nadine, Toeg Hadi, Murphy Cheryl
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Acad Psychiatry. 2015 Jun;39(3):246-52. doi: 10.1007/s40596-014-0269-6. Epub 2015 Jan 13.
There is a projected shortage of psychiatrists in Canada in forthcoming years. This study assessed factors in medical school education that are associated with students selecting psychiatry first and matching as a discipline.
The Canadian Organization of Undergraduate Psychiatry Educators (COUPE) conducted telephone interviews and sent e-mail questionnaires to the 17 medical schools across Canada; all schools provided data for 2012. Relevant data were obtained from the Canadian Resident Matching Service. Statistics were performed using v12 STATA program, and significance was set at a p value of <0.05.
Medical student enrollment ranged from 54 to 266 students (mean = 158 ± 16). Of these students, 4.9 ± 0.6 % ranked psychiatry as their first choice for residency. Final match results yielded similar numbers at 5.0 ± 0.6 %. Ten out of 17 programs filled all psychiatry residency positions, whereas the remaining 7 programs had vacancy rates from 5 to 100 % (mean = 43.4 ± 15.1 %). Medical students were exposed to an average of 2.8 ± 0.5 pre-clerkship psychiatry weeks and 6.2 ± 0.3 clerkship weeks. Linear regression analysis demonstrated that the percentage of graduating medical students entering a psychiatry residency program could be predicted from the number of weeks of pre-clerkship exposure (p = 0.01; R(2) = 0.36) but not from the number of clerkship weeks (p = 0.74).
This study indicates that the duration of pre-clerkship exposure to psychiatry predicts the number of students selecting psychiatry as their first choice as a discipline. Thus, increasing the duration of pre-clerkship exposure may increase the enrollment of medical students into psychiatry.
预计在未来几年加拿大将出现精神科医生短缺的情况。本研究评估了医学院校教育中与学生首先选择精神病学并最终匹配该学科相关的因素。
加拿大本科精神病学教育工作者组织（COUPE）对加拿大17所医学院校进行了电话访谈并发送了电子邮件问卷；所有学校均提供了2012年的数据。相关数据来自加拿大住院医师匹配服务机构。使用v12 STATA程序进行统计分析，显著性设定为p值<0.05。
医学院校学生人数从54人至266人不等（平均 = 158 ± 16）。在这些学生中，4.9 ± 0.6%将精神病学列为住院医师培训的首选。最终匹配结果显示比例相似，为5.0 ± 0.6%。17个项目中有10个填补了所有精神病学住院医师职位，而其余7个项目的空缺率从5%到100%不等（平均 = 43.4 ± 15.1%）。医学生平均接受了2.8 ± 0.5周的临床前精神病学课程和6.2 ± 0.3周的临床课程。线性回归分析表明，从临床前接触周数可以预测进入精神病学住院医师培训项目的毕业医学生百分比（p = 0.01；R(2) = 0.36），但不能从临床课程周数预测（p = 0.74）。
本研究表明，临床前接触精神病学的时长可预测将精神病学作为首选学科的学生人数。因此，增加临床前接触时长可能会增加医学生进入精神病学专业的人数。
