title: Factors affecting recruitment into psychiatry: a canadian experience.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is a projected shortage of psychiatrists in Canada in forthcoming years. This study assessed factors in medical school education that are associated with students selecting psychiatry first and matching as a discipline.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Canadian Organization of Undergraduate Psychiatry Educators (COUPE) conducted telephone interviews and sent e-mail questionnaires to the 17 medical schools across Canada; all schools provided data for 2012. Relevant data were obtained from the Canadian Resident Matching Service. Statistics were performed using v12 STATA program, and significance was set at a p value of <0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Medical student enrollment ranged from 54 to 266 students (mean = 158 ± 16). Of these students, 4.9 ± 0.6 % ranked psychiatry as their first choice for residency. Final match results yielded similar numbers at 5.0 ± 0.6 %. Ten out of 17 programs filled all psychiatry residency positions, whereas the remaining 7 programs had vacancy rates from 5 to 100 % (mean = 43.4 ± 15.1 %). Medical students were exposed to an average of 2.8 ± 0.5 pre-clerkship psychiatry weeks and 6.2 ± 0.3 clerkship weeks. Linear regression analysis demonstrated that the percentage of graduating medical students entering a psychiatry residency program could be predicted from the number of weeks of pre-clerkship exposure (p = 0.01; R(2) = 0.36) but not from the number of clerkship weeks (p = 0.74).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study indicates that the duration of pre-clerkship exposure to psychiatry predicts the number of students selecting psychiatry as their first choice as a discipline. Thus, increasing the duration of pre-clerkship exposure may increase the enrollment of medical students into psychiatry.
authors.affiliation: University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Delara
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zamani
authors.forename: Elliott Kyung
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Khashayar D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Asli
authors.forename: Jasbir
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Brager
authors.forename: Raed
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hawa
authors.forename: Wei-Yi
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Eunice
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.forename: Renee
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fitzpatrick
authors.forename: Natasja M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Menezes
authors.forename: Vu H
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Pham
authors.forename: Alan Bruce
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Douglass
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Allain
authors.forename: Greg B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Meterissian
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gagnon
authors.forename: Hadi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toeg
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Murphy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D002321:Career Choice; D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003479:Curriculum / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult