The authors note that the elimination of the internship requirement for
board certification has engendered much discussion and has called attention
to the need for further study of training in psychiatry. To help clarify
the issue, they investigated demographic and career choice factors,
individual internship decisions, and perceptions and feelings about these
decisions in 57 psychiatric residents. The results indicate that the career
plans of students have a strong influence on their training choices--those
who are oriented toward inpatient psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine
view the internship as more relevant than those who plan to concentrate in
other areas. The authors suggest further research on the relation between
career choice and training preferences.Abstract Teaser