Medical School Factors Associated with Higher Rates of Recruitment into Psychiatry

Objective: The medical school a student attends appears to be a factor in whether students eventually match into psychiatry. Knowledge of which factors are associated with medical schools with higher recruitment rates into psychiatry may assist in developing strategies to increase recruitment. Methods: Psychiatry leaders in medical student education in the 25 highest and lowest recruiting US allopathic schools were surveyed concerning various factors that could be important such as curriculum, educational leadership, and presence of anti-psychiatry stigma. The relationship between the survey results of high recruiting schools versus those of low recruiting schools was evaluated using Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: Factors significantly associated (p <.05) with higher recruiting schools included better reputation of the psychiatry department and residents, perceived higher respect for psychiatry among non-psychiatry faculty, less perception that students dissuaded other students from pursuing psychiatry, and longer clerkship length. Conclusions: Educational culture and climate factors may have a significant impact on psychiatry recruitment rates. Clerkship length was associated with higher recruiting schools, but several previous studies with more complete samples have not shown this.