title: Attitudes toward psychiatry as a prospective career among medical students in their pre-clinical year in China- a pilot study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To understand the attitudes among medical students in China toward different medical specialties and to find the factors that influenced their choice of career in psychiatry.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was developed and administered to 287 medical students at the Xiangya Medical College, Central South University in Changsha, China. All the students were asked to rate the importance of five possible factors in choosing a specialty as a vocation: the ability to help patients, interesting and challenging work, lifestyle factors, financial reward, and prestige.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students reported negative perceptions of psychiatry in regard to all five possible factors that were important in choosing a specialty as a vocation, especially in financial reward and prestige.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medical students in China have negative attitudes toward psychiatry as a career. Some negative beliefs about psychiatry seem to be due to erroneous or insufficient knowledge that could be corrected during the course of medical education. Some negative attitudes were unlikely to be completely changed until the mental health system in China improves.
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Institute of the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
authors.forename: Xuyi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: Tieqiao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D002321:Career Choice; D002681:China; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011570:Psychiatry; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
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