Psychiatry recruited you, but will it retain you? Survey of trainees' opinions

Abstract

Aims and method: To gather opinion from trainees across England about their current experiences and future career plans. This was done via an internet-based survey. Results: Out of the 359 responses we received, 65.8% of trainees planned to stay in psychiatry until retirement. Trainees felt several issues were problematic, including the attitude of other specialties towards psychiatry, perceived substandard treatment of psychiatric patients by other specialties and implications of New Ways of Working. Clinical implications: Despite there being many areas of training respondents were happy with, if attrition is to be minimised, issues such as how psychiatric trainees integrate with the other medical specialties and how the role of doctors in the specialty is perceived need to be addressed.