Peking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University), National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), 51 Huayuan Bei Road, Beijing, 100191, China.
Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences and PKU-IDG, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China.
BMC Med Educ. 2021 Mar 25;21(1):183. doi: 10.1186/s12909-021-02622-x.
The undergraduate program of psychiatry has been widely established in recent years to improve the education and recruitment of psychiatrists in China. We aim to investigate the career choice of medical students majoring in psychiatry in China and the influential factors.
This multicenter study was conducted in 26 medical schools in China from May to October of 2019. Participants included 4610 medical students majoring in psychiatry and 3857 medical students majoring in clinical medicine. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate the influential factors of students' choices of psychiatry at matriculation and as a career.
44.08% of psychiatry majored students gave psychiatry as a first choice at matriculation, and 56.67% of them would choose psychiatry as a career, which was in sharp contrast to the proportion of clinical medicine majored students who would choose psychiatry as a career (0.69%). Personal interest (59.61%), suggestions from family members (27.96%), and experiencing mental problems (23.19%) were main reasons for choosing psychiatry major at matriculation. Personal interest (odds ratio [OR] = 2.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.87-2.40), experiencing a psychiatry clerkship (OR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.28-3.08), being female (OR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.30-1.68), experiencing mental problems (OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.28-1.56), and suggestions from family members (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.08-1.46) correlated positively with students' choice of psychiatry as career. Students who lacked psychiatry knowledge (OR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.29-0.85) or chose psychiatry because of lower admission scores (OR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.63-0.97) were less likely to choose psychiatry as a career.
More than half of psychiatry majored medical school students planned to choose psychiatry as their career, whereas very few students in the clinic medicine major would make this choice. Increasing students' interest in psychiatry, strengthening psychiatry clerkships, and popularizing psychiatric knowledge are modifiable factors to increase the psychiatry career intention. The extent to which medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry can be changed through medical school education and greater exposure to psychiatry will need further investigation.
近年来，中国广泛开设了精神病学本科课程，以提高精神病学家的教育和招聘水平。我们旨在调查中国医学生选择精神病学专业的情况及其影响因素。
本多中心研究于 2019 年 5 月至 10 月在全国 26 所医学院校进行。参与者包括 4610 名精神病学专业医学生和 3857 名临床医学专业医学生。采用多变量逻辑回归分析学生在入学时和作为职业选择精神病学的影响因素。
44.08%的精神病学专业学生在入学时将精神病学作为第一选择，而 56.67%的学生将选择精神病学作为职业，这与临床医学专业学生选择精神病学作为职业的比例（0.69%）形成鲜明对比。个人兴趣（59.61%）、家庭成员的建议（27.96%）和经历精神问题（23.19%）是入学时选择精神病学专业的主要原因。个人兴趣（比值比[OR] = 2.12，95%置信区间[CI] = 1.87-2.40）、精神病学实习经历（OR = 1.99，95% CI = 1.28-3.08）、女性（OR = 1.50，95% CI = 1.30-1.68）、经历精神问题（OR = 1.33，95% CI = 1.28-1.56）和家庭成员的建议（OR = 1.25，95% CI = 1.08-1.46）与学生选择精神病学作为职业呈正相关。缺乏精神病学知识（OR = 0.49，95% CI = 0.29-0.85）或因入学分数较低而选择精神病学（OR = 0.80，95% CI = 0.63-0.97）的学生不太可能选择精神病学作为职业。
超过一半的精神病学专业医学生计划选择精神病学作为职业，而临床医学专业的学生很少有这样的选择。增加学生对精神病学的兴趣、加强精神病学实习和普及精神病学知识是增加精神病学职业意向的可改变因素。通过医学院校教育和更多接触精神病学可以在多大程度上改变医学生对精神病学的态度，还需要进一步调查。
