Taking psychiatry to medical students

From the desk of Editor: Guest Editorial by Dr Vinay Lakra

Volume 12 Issues 9 September, 2022 

During my medical training in mid 90s there was limited exposure to psychiatry as a speciality. Initially I wanted to be a surgeon and psychiatry was nowhere in my mind as a career. Many things happened, some by chance and others by intention and I was successful in joining the training program at Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi. I had found psychiatry, mostly by chance. How did that happen is a story to be told another time?

The focus of this article is not about my journey but about how we make psychiatry attractive to medical students. Instead of expecting them to find it, should we find them? The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) has developed a program – Psychiatry Interest Forum (PIF), which focuses on bringing psychiatry to medical students and making it more accessible to them, demystifying it for them and normalising it as a medical speciality.

PIF is a free membership program offered by the RANZCP designed to provide medical students an insight into psychiatry. The PIF program promotes psychiatry as a profession amongst medical students and prevocational doctors, as well as reduces the associated stigma of psychiatry practice. It also challenges common misconceptions about psychiatry. The program is available to join in first year of medical training and they can remain members till they join a speciality training program.

Launched in 2013, the PIF program had approximately 434 new members in the first year of inception. As of October 2022, the PIF membership has grown to over 4,500 active members who are medical students and prevocational doctors. The program has increased interest in psychiatry amongst medical students with a 66% growth in memberships from the beginning of 2018 to the end of 2021. The program also supported an increase in entry numbers into the RANZCP training program with 79% of trainees in 2021 being past PIF members.

PIF delivers several streams of support including short courses, scholarships for conference attendance, webinars and online resources, promotions and competitions; and of course, career guidance. PIF continues to expand its reach and impact and is a proven program that increases the pipeline of psychiatry trainees across Australia and New Zealand. PIF also provides RANZCP Fellows and trainees the opportunity to engage with, and inspire, the next generation of psychiatrists. Pleasingly, the Australian Government has also recognised the benefits of PIF to the future of the psychiatry workforce and provides funding to support the initiative.

Although PIF is a funded program, there are elements of this program which can be easily scaled up in any setting without any significant financial resources. While PIF has attracted more medical students to join psychiatry training, one of its biggest achievements is to increase awareness of psychiatry to them. Even if many of them do not pursue psychiatry as a career, they have better knowledge about psychiatry and are more likely to contribute to reducing stigma for psychiatry patients who they see in their chosen speciality.  We know that many medical specialities have significant interface with psychiatry, with significant comorbidities of physical and mental illnesses.

Doctors are very influential in how care is delivered. If we can create a positive attitude about psychiatry amongst them right from when they enter medical training, then it will benefit everyone especially our patients many of whom still die much earlier than the general population.

I found psychiatry, but through programs like PIF, I want psychiatry to find the next generation of psychiatrists and create a positive attitude about our speciality amongst all doctors.