Career development after flexible training in psychiatry - a national survey

As an off-shoot to the CIPTAC project, a sub-project is examining the experiences of those psychiatrists that trained flexibly.

Introduction

There has been an increase in flexible training since its inception 30 years ago, and it is known that flexible trainees tend to be good trainees. Most flexible trainees want to work part-time when accredited, but concerns have been expressed that there might not be enough part-time posts. Two Department of Health documents highlight the importance of providing flexible working patterns to encourage the recruitment and retention of doctors in the workforce (1998-1999). Added to this the fact that there are many unfilled consultant posts in psychiatry (Royal College Census 2000), it is important that research is carried out into flexible trainees? career intentions and experience, the aim to improve recruitment and retention.

A previous study (Etchegoyen and Stormont, published in Hospital Medicine, June 2001) examined flexible training in one area. A postal survey of consultants who had previously been flexible trainees in the Thames regions asked if flexible training had prepared them for their consultant aspirations. It found that opportunities in academic work were limited, but that they had a high success rate in achieving consultant status suitable for their needs (only one person was working full-time who would have preferred to be part-time). There were, however, concerns about job satisfaction in part-time posts.

This project has replicated the study on a national basis to identify what happens to this particular group of trainees, with the aim of providing data to allow further workforce planning.

Click here to download a copy of the Psychiatrists'career development after flexible training final report