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Factors influencing medical students and psychiatry residents in Ghana to consider psychiatry as a career option – a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Currently, Ghana has 14 actively practicing psychiatrists and about 26 psychiatric residents for a population of over 28 million people. Previous research suggests a lack of interest by Ghanaian medical students and medical graduates in considering psychiatry as a career option. OBJECTIV...

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Autores principales: Agyapong, Vincent I.O, Ritchie, Amanda, Doucet, Kacy, Agyapong-Opoku, Gerald, Shalaby, Reham, Hrabok, Marianne, Ulzen, Thaddeus, Osei, Akwasi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7786269/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33489247
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2020.24
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author Agyapong, Vincent I.O
Ritchie, Amanda
Doucet, Kacy
Agyapong-Opoku, Gerald
Shalaby, Reham
Hrabok, Marianne
Ulzen, Thaddeus
Osei, Akwasi
author_facet Agyapong, Vincent I.O
Ritchie, Amanda
Doucet, Kacy
Agyapong-Opoku, Gerald
Shalaby, Reham
Hrabok, Marianne
Ulzen, Thaddeus
Osei, Akwasi
author_sort Agyapong, Vincent I.O
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Currently, Ghana has 14 actively practicing psychiatrists and about 26 psychiatric residents for a population of over 28 million people. Previous research suggests a lack of interest by Ghanaian medical students and medical graduates in considering psychiatry as a career option. OBJECTIVES: To examine the perception of medical students and psychiatry residents in Ghana about the barriers which hinder Ghanaian medical graduates from choosing careers in psychiatry and how these barriers could be overcome. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional qualitative study with data gathered using focus group discussion. Twenty clinical year medical students were selected through block randomization from the four public medical schools in Ghana and invited to participate in one of two focus group discussions. Also, four psychiatric residents were invited to participate in the focus group discussions. RESULTS: The main barriers identified by participants could be grouped under four main themes, namely: (a) myths and stigma surrounding mental health and patients, (b) negative perceptions of psychiatrists, (c) infrastructure and funding issues, (d) lack of exposure and education. To address the barriers presented, participants discussed potential solutions that could be categorized into five main themes, namely: (a) stigma reduction, (b) educating professionals, (c) addressing deficient infrastructure, (d) risk management, and (e) incentivizing the pursuit of psychiatry among students. CONCLUSION: Health policy planners and medical training institutions could consider implementing proposed solutions to identify barriers as part of efforts to improve the psychiatrist to patient ratio in Ghana.
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spelling pubmed-77862692021-01-21 Factors influencing medical students and psychiatry residents in Ghana to consider psychiatry as a career option – a qualitative study Agyapong, Vincent I.O Ritchie, Amanda Doucet, Kacy Agyapong-Opoku, Gerald Shalaby, Reham Hrabok, Marianne Ulzen, Thaddeus Osei, Akwasi Glob Ment Health (Camb) Brief Report BACKGROUND: Currently, Ghana has 14 actively practicing psychiatrists and about 26 psychiatric residents for a population of over 28 million people. Previous research suggests a lack of interest by Ghanaian medical students and medical graduates in considering psychiatry as a career option. OBJECTIVES: To examine the perception of medical students and psychiatry residents in Ghana about the barriers which hinder Ghanaian medical graduates from choosing careers in psychiatry and how these barriers could be overcome. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional qualitative study with data gathered using focus group discussion. Twenty clinical year medical students were selected through block randomization from the four public medical schools in Ghana and invited to participate in one of two focus group discussions. Also, four psychiatric residents were invited to participate in the focus group discussions. RESULTS: The main barriers identified by participants could be grouped under four main themes, namely: (a) myths and stigma surrounding mental health and patients, (b) negative perceptions of psychiatrists, (c) infrastructure and funding issues, (d) lack of exposure and education. To address the barriers presented, participants discussed potential solutions that could be categorized into five main themes, namely: (a) stigma reduction, (b) educating professionals, (c) addressing deficient infrastructure, (d) risk management, and (e) incentivizing the pursuit of psychiatry among students. CONCLUSION: Health policy planners and medical training institutions could consider implementing proposed solutions to identify barriers as part of efforts to improve the psychiatrist to patient ratio in Ghana. Cambridge University Press 2020-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7786269/ /pubmed/33489247 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2020.24 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Brief Report
Agyapong, Vincent I.O
Ritchie, Amanda
Doucet, Kacy
Agyapong-Opoku, Gerald
Shalaby, Reham
Hrabok, Marianne
Ulzen, Thaddeus
Osei, Akwasi
Factors influencing medical students and psychiatry residents in Ghana to consider psychiatry as a career option – a qualitative study
title Factors influencing medical students and psychiatry residents in Ghana to consider psychiatry as a career option – a qualitative study
title_full Factors influencing medical students and psychiatry residents in Ghana to consider psychiatry as a career option – a qualitative study
title_fullStr Factors influencing medical students and psychiatry residents in Ghana to consider psychiatry as a career option – a qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed Factors influencing medical students and psychiatry residents in Ghana to consider psychiatry as a career option – a qualitative study
title_short Factors influencing medical students and psychiatry residents in Ghana to consider psychiatry as a career option – a qualitative study
title_sort factors influencing medical students and psychiatry residents in ghana to consider psychiatry as a career option – a qualitative study
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7786269/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33489247
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2020.24
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