We absolutely need more psychiatrist-scientists and should support their training. However, it's even more critical that universities make pursuing a career as a psychiatrist-scientist viable.
A number of trends are making it harder and harder for talented psychiatrist-scientists to pursue academic careers.
Longer training- besides medical school (4 years), residency (4 years), and graduate research training (often 4-6 years for PhDs), it's becoming standard for universities to require multiple years as a post-doc, non-ACGME Fellow, or adjunct/instructor. I was 34 when I graduated residency, if I had stayed in academia I'd have been looking at at least another 2 years as a 'trainee'
Increasing demands- doing research and being a clinician will of course always be more work than doing just one of those things. But the amount of work expected to move up the academic ladder is crushing. In addition, to conducting to research, clinical care, and teaching, there is exploding bureaucratic and administrative work in all domains. Endless grants to write, committees to work on, patient messages/prior authorizations etc.. It's a 60+ hour a week job and it doesn't get any easier as you move up
For those that make it through and land a faculty position with dedicated research time, compensation is less than their clinical colleagues (often substantially so). This is after years of lost earning due to the additional training.
Of course becoming a psychiatrist-scientist will always require sacrifice. People chose this path because they are passionate about the field, the science, and the patients. But we have to be honest that the magnitude of that sacrifice has been increasing for too long.
Maybe this is just me, and maybe it's more personal detail then I should be sharing on LinkedIn, but it felt like I had to chose between a career as an academic psychiatrist-scientist and literally every other part of my life.
Viewpoint discusses why it is important for psychiatry residency programs to continue to prioritize the training of psychiatrist-scientists. https://ja.ma/4h0wZA6
Director of Graduate Medical Education at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center | Psychiatrist | Internist
6 个月This is a good example of how military GME differs. We won’t get this anywhere else.