Professor, It's never too late for a mid-career specialty switch to become a psychiatrist

Authors: Gianetta Rands, Sarah Stringer:

Publication date: 22 Apr 2011

Gianetta Rands and Sarah Stringer look at a mid-career specialty switch to psychiatry

Since Modernising Medical Careers was implemented in 2007, doctors have been expected to choose their career specialty during their first foundation year of training, with or without the advantage of a training post or taster in that specialty. In the latest report from the BMA cohort study more than a third of doctors said that their experiences of the foundation programme did not allow them to make informed choices about their career specialty.[1]

Recent evidence shows that only one in two general practitioners and psychiatrists had given their specialty as their first choice in their first postgraduate year of training. This indicates that these doctors are “late choosers” who experience other specialties before settling on their final career.[2] At the 2008 annual conference of tutors and trainers in psychiatry a show of hands revealed that at least half of those attending had considerable experience (often to membership level) in other medical specialties before settling in their psychiatry careers.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists welcomes doctors with postgraduate training in other specialties, recognising that such experience contributes positively to the wisdom and diversity within psychiatry. Read more>>