How to Recruit Medical Students Into Psychiatry: One Model

Last month I used this column to write about how important it is that we, as residents, take seriously our opportunities to teach medical students about the uniqueness of our specialty (Psychiatric News, September 19). In this column, I would like to go a step further and discuss how residents can get involved in recruitment to ensure high-quality applicants into the field of psychiatry.

At the University of South Carolina (USC) we are proud of our standing as one of the nation’s medical schools with the highest percentage of medical graduates going into psychiatry. Last year, we matched 14.7 percent of the graduating M-IV class into a psychiatry residency program. Contributing to this success have been Drs. Larry Faulkner, dean of the USC School of Medicine; Ron Prier, residency training director; J.T. Thornhill, assistant dean for clinical curriculum and director of medical student education for psychiatry; and Jay Scully and Richard Harding, past chair and current chair of psychiatry, respectively.

While there are numerous reasons that account for our medical school’s consistently high percentage of students going into psychiatry, I’d like to think that the work of our residents contributes to it and to the quality of students seeking out our specialty for training. Of course, residents play the traditional role of serving as teachers to medical students while students work on rotations where a resident is also assigned; however, our residents also serve as tutors/mentors during the third-year psychiatry clerkship. Each student is assigned to meet with either an attending or resident for one hour a week and discuss reading assignments and interesting cases that the student sees during his or her rotation.

Residents are not required to serve as tutors, but each semester at least half a dozen residents volunteer and consistently report this as a worthwhile experience. Students also report this as a beneficial experience—one that allows further contact with residents and the opportunity to get to know residents on a more personal level and see them as mentors and role models, as well as teachers.

Residents also volunteer to serve as small-group leaders during the PGY-1 “Introduction to Clinical Medicine” course. This allows residents to interact with beginning medical students long before they ever get to their clinical rotations. Students enjoy the unique perspective of young physicians who completed medical school only a few years before them. In addition, residents serve as instructors during OSCE examinations at the end of the third-year clerkship. Students give good feedback to the clerkship director and state that it is often comforting to see familiar faces during a very stressful time.

In regard to resident selection, each year our selection committee is composed of approximately seven faculty members and nine residents (two from each PGY class and the chief resident). Residents and faculty interview candidates, make follow-up phone calls, and participate equally in ranking candidates.

Over the years, we have learned that students applying for a residency want resident contact and appreciate their varying viewpoints. We consistently hear how impressed applicants are when told of how involved residents are in the selection process. This allows them to see that resident input is truly valued and actively sought.

Finally, our medical school started a psychiatry interest group approximately three years ago. I have served as the resident advisor since it began, and I continue to be amazed at its success. A faculty advisor and I meet with the group six times a year for dinner. Any student in any of the four classes may attend. At the beginning of each year, the students choose the areas of psychiatry that they want to learn more about. I then locate a speaker from the community willing to attend the meeting and discuss his or her area of psychiatric practice. Anywhere from 10 to 25 students attend each meeting. They consistently state that the speakers and interaction with others interested in psychiatry help to build their interest in our profession. They enjoy building relationships with different faculty members and with a resident who can assist them as they begin to make decisions about choosing a specialty.

Even though psychiatry has shown a moderate increase in numbers of students matching over the past few years, continued vigilance is needed to attract the best and brightest students into our field. Residents have an important role to play in securing the future of our profession.

If you are interested in what we are doing here at USC, or you have questions or comments on matters or issues affecting APA’s members-in-training, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. ▪