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Successful Careers in Psychiatry Events for Medical Students / Interns
The College hosted its Careers in Psychiatry events in Cork and Dublin 22 and 23 August for Medical Students and Interns.
Careers days are aimed at medical students, interns or medical graduates who may be considering applying for specialist training in Psychiatry, or who would simply like to find out more about what a career in Psychiatry in Ireland entails.
Both events this year were well attended and positively received by attendees. The events included presentations from Consultant Specialists and Trainees in Child and Adolescent, Addictions, Old Age and Liaison Psychiatry, as well as the opportunity to meet with members of the College REFOCUS committee, a group of people with first-hand, personal experience of using mental health services.
Presentations by Consultant Specialists included the specifics of their specialties, but also more general discussions on the work a psychiatrist does and the rewards and challenges of the field. During her discussion as a consultant psychiatrist in Liaison Psychiatry, Dr Siobhan MacHale noted that “a Psychiatrist needs to have empathy and be a good communicator.”
Dr Siobhan MacHale presenting at the 2019 Careers in Psychiatry Day in Dublin
Roundtable discussions with members of the College REFOCUS committee, which covered the needs of service users/patients, the positive experiences psychiatry has provided them and the challenges that still exist.
Members of the REFOCUS committee participated in roundtable discussions with Psychiatry Trainees.
Additional features of the events included a visit to a local mental health service, where attendees met with multidisciplinary staff and service users.
Visitors to the Éist Linn Child and Adolescent Inpatient Unit in Cork were shown around the unit to meet staff members who discussed how the facility works with patients, the importance of a multidisciplinary team approach to care and support, and the critical work of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. The individually focused therapeutic and multidisciplinary approach with patients at Éist Linn has resulted in a very low number of patients transitioning to Adult Mental Health Services once they reach 18. The majority recover and continue to pursue their young lives outside the service alongside their peers.
Another feature of the days was an interactive movie screening, discussing and dissecting the portrayal of mental ill-health on the big screen with a number of current Psychiatry Trainees. Clips from Girl, Interrupted, the TV series Homeland and the short film Paak | Pure were featured.
Psychiatry Trainees Dr Marie Lynch, Dr Caoimhe Clarke and Dr Caoimhe McLoughlin led the discussion on Psychiatry in Film
These recruitment events take place fresh off the back of the release of the results of “Your Training Counts – 2017”, the annual Medical Council survey of Postgraduate Medical Trainees and their training environments, wherein Psychiatry training was ranked highest for training experience across every category. Psychiatry training has consistently achieved the highest D-RECT(Dutch Residency Educational Climate Test) score since the ‘Your Training Counts’ survey was first released in 2015.