Psychiatry losing medical students to other disciplines
Psychiatry in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States is losing medical students to the other medical specialties, and may be an international issue. There are a host of reasons for this shortage such as the short term nature of placements (only 4 weeks), psychiatry is seen by others in the field as not scientific enough, it is a less lucrative choice, and the sheer breadth of knowledge needed in this field.
The UK Royal College of Psychiatry is working to increase the profile of their profession by reaching out to senior high school students. The article states that psychiatry needs to become more evidence based and connect itself better to other medical specialties (in order to acknowledge that mental health is broader than clinical needs) if it is to grow and recruit more medical practitioners.
See, “Psychiatry’s Identify Crisis,” available atwww.journals2.scholarportal.