Factors influencing French medical students towards a career in psychiatry

Abstract

Background: There is a need to increase the recruitment to psychiatry in France. Our aim in this study was to compare factors influencing career choice between French medical students considering and not considering psychiatry as a specialty.

Subjects and methods: Quantitative cross-sectional online survey on 145 French students in their last year of medical school.

Results: 22.7% of our sample considered choosing a career in psychiatry. A preference for a career in psychiatry was associated with more frequent history of personal/familial mental illness, higher ratings of psychiatric teaching, more weeks of compulsory psychiatry teaching and placement, during which students had more often met patients in recovery and been asked their opinion on patients. Students considering psychiatry as a career also emphasized more the need for a good work-life balance, and presented better attitudes toward psychiatry.

Conclusions: Improving opportunities of interactions between students and psychiatrists or psychiatric patients might help to improve recruitment in psychiatry.