Background: Few junior doctors enter into psychiatry training, resulting in a binational shortage of psychiatrists. In 2003, we introduced a teaching program for prevocational junior doctors to attempt to encourage interest in psychiatry as a career.
Aims: To provide a teaching program that is both interactive and directly addresses the clinical and academic needs of this group and enhances their satisfaction with prevocational psychiatry rotations. Thereby we hoped to increase the number of doctors interested in psychiatry as a career.
Methods: We measured satisfaction of our 10 week teaching program using quantitative feedback collected at the end of each 2 hour seminar across 6 parameters on a 7 point Likert Scale. We collected qualitative data at the end of each rotation on the doctors’ satisfaction with their psychiatry experience.
Results: Quantitative feedback for the presentations has been consistently positive and stable over time with median scores of 6/7. Satisfaction with the psychiatry term is high as is the popularity of psychiatry rotations amongst the local prevocational workforce. Applications to either enter psychiatry training or pursue further experiences in psychiatry increased in 2005 and 2006.
Conclusion or discussion: High levels of satisfaction with the Psychiatry experience were recorded that was associated with increased interest in further experience in the field. There may be significant benefits for services and training bodies that implement a prevocational teaching program.
