Background to academic psychiatry
Academic psychiatrists can be from
any psychiatric specialty and they spend some of their time in
research and/or teaching. The jobs vary across institutions and
across specialties. Research may be undertaken in a variety of
areas such as biological (for example the genetics of psychiatric
disorders), social (for example, the social factors that increase
the risk for developing mental health problems) and psychological
(for example research into different ways of thinking that may help
or hinder how we deal with situations).
Clinical academics are in an
excellent position to relate academic findings to clinical
contexts. Increasingly there has been a greater emphasis on
research than teaching given changes in how universities are
funded. Changes in how doctors are trained has led to some
uncertainty about how medicine, including psychiatry, will train
future academics. If you think you might be interested in an
academic career in psychiatry, it can be useful to look up the work
of academic psychiatrists at several universities. This will give
you a good idea of the range of opportunities.
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Personal perspective
Academic responsibilities include
postgraduate and undergraduate teaching responsibilities in child
mental health and other relevant areas, research in related areas
and administrative responsibilities. I am currently course director
for an innovative postgraduate certificate/diploma/masters in child
mental health. In addition to the teaching commitment, there is
also research into teaching methods and assessments as well as
exploring how students conceptualise diversity and its impact on
clinical practice. I also have other roles, such as admissions
officer for the medical school, department equal opportunities
representative, department research ethics officer and a member of
the non-professorial selection committee at the University. I chair
the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ scoping group on undergraduate
education in psychiatry. I recently joined the editorial board of
Diversity in Health and Social Care, having the lead responsibility
for the new "Did you see?" feature. I regularly review grant
applications and peer review articles for several journals usually
on diversity, education or child mental health.
Best parts of being an academic
- Never bored as there are always so
many different things happening
- Opportunity to influence practice
and policy in your area
- Opportunities to travel and spend
time with clinical and academic colleagues in the US, India,
Australia, South Africa and Nigeria
More difficult bits
- Sometimes it feels like the job’s never done as there is always
a paper waiting to be written
- Teaching is not always valued
- Seeking funding for projects which may be important but are not
a government priority
I feel I have an absolutely great
job. It is in a discipline that I feel brings together the science
and art of medicine. I came into child psychiatry having decided
against paeditarics. But now, even if I was not a child
psychiatrist, I would want to remain in psychiatry. Having said
that, why would I want to change what I do? I have a job that
encourages me to continually challenge myself and continue to work
to make things better for children and young people through direct
clinical work, through teaching students (both medical students and
others) and through research. All parts of the job need the other
parts to make the most of them. For me, being a clinical academic
is important as it is the clinical work that sets the stage for my
teaching and research activities. However, the teaching and
research provide the opportunity to challenge what I do clinically
and enable me to be more reflective about my clinical work. If I
had to describe my ideal job, this would be pretty much it,
although maybe less political and management influence would make
it even better!
Dr Nisha Dogra
Senior lecturer in child and
adolescent psychiatry, Leicester
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Page updated on 8
December 2010