Postgraduate qualifications (week 8 of 8)

So we are now at week 8 of the blog, where I will cover the seventh of the planned seven training tips or areas for career development. This week I look at postgraduate qualifications, emphasizing the primary importance of the MRCPsych and CPsychI examinations and I will then share some thoughts about other aspects of postgraduate qualifications. There will also be two bonus blog installments over the next two weeks, with one guest piece from a Trainee who has just completed Basic Specialist Training and another from a Trainee who is currently immersed in the wonderful world of Higher Specialist Training. 

But back to this week...

Several years ago a good friend of mine, a fellow Trainee in Psychiatry who is now working as a successful and accomplished Consultant Psychiatrist, started a new six month training post.  When his Consultant asked him what his plans were for the next year or two he replied that he was planning to do a course in film studies and that he was hoping to make a short film. After a pregnant pause, the Consultant asked him what his plans were for completing his psychiatry membership examinations and he was met with a vacant look. The Consultant strongly encouraged my friend to prepare for and complete the MRCPsych examinations as a matter of priority, highlighting that he could revert to film and any other type of artistic endeavour once he had obtained his MRCPsych qualification, and thus earned his stripes in the world of psychiatry.

I have often thought about this interaction and I now give the same advice to any Trainee working with me. The emphasis in postgraduate training should always be on trying to pass the relevant membership examinations as soon as possible. Once this has been achieved the Trainee may go on and do further qualifications in whatever particular area of psychiatry (or indeed the arts) in which they are interested. 

Incidentally, I checked this morning with the above mentioned friend if it was okay with him that I share the film anecdote and he very kindly agreed. He also told me that, after passing his MRCPsych examinations, he went on to complete a Masters in Film Studies. And he managed to make a film that was shown in an actual cinema. So congratulations, my anonymous friend!

And that happy little anecdote provides the theme for this week's pictorial inclusions, all involving films that depict some aspect of psychiatry. 

So let's just get it out of the way and start with the psychiatry film that everyone thinks of first:

Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1975) 

And another film heavy with psychiatric themes...

Russell Crowe as John Nash in 'A Beautiful Mind' (2001)

And of course there's this one...

'Fight Club' (1991) 

But back to postgraduate qualifications. Following the MRCPsych and CPsychI examinations, possibilities for further postgraduate work in psychiatry includes Diploma, Masters and even doctoral level studies in particular areas of research, teaching/medical education or healthcare management.  

You may find as the years progress that your interests become narrowed, more focused and more specialized, but try and keep an open mind at least until well into your HST years. 

I would advise as a general outline that you aim to complete the MRCPsych examinations (with or without formal CPysychI BST training) within four to five years of graduating from medical school. People who ‘do medicine first’, i.e. work for 3-4 years in general medicine and obtain their medical membership examinations before entering psychiatry may advise you to do just that; those of us who have not worked in general medicine before entering psychiatry will advise you to do what we have done – such is the nature of advice.

The best advice is probably somewhere in between, e.g. consider a year in a relevant specialty such as Neurology (and thus follow in the career footsteps of Sigmund Freud). After completing your membership examinations I would advise that you embark on Higher Specialist Training (or an equivalent portfolio of activities if you are working on a Continuous Professional Development Support Scheme, CPD-SS) and complete this within the next three to four years. This will facilitate your inclusion on the specialist register of the Medical Council and improve your employment prospects considerably. The pronouncement from Justice Peter Kelly in early 2018 regarding Consultants working in Ireland who are not on the Medical Council Specialist Register means that the days may be numbered for any other arrangements such as Consultants working in locum or temporary posts who are on the General Register only.

And now for a few darker psychiatry-themed films...

Jodie Foster (playing Clarice Starling) and Anthony Hopkins (playing the cannibalistic psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter) in 'Silence of the Lambs' (1991)

And this one tends to get mixed reviews, but I like it...

Leonardo DiCaprio with the lead role in 'Shutter Island' (2010)

You may have realized from an early stage that your interests lie within research, teaching or healthcare management.  However, it is often not until later in one’s career that these ideas are generally crystallized. A pitfall that I would advise you to avoid is that of frantically trying to complete several disparate and trivial audits and research papers that have no coherent overarching narrative and that do not lead to an ultimate qualification or product that you can add to your CV. You are much more likely to produce well written and publishable research and other types of medical literature if you are doing such work as part of an overall structured and well supervised postgraduate programme.

During HST (or CPD-SS equivalent) years, I would advise that you use the extra time for personal development to focus on postgraduate courses and qualifications in at least one if not two or three areas. Consider signing up for courses at Diploma, Masters or doctoral levels with small groups of like minded colleagues - a cohesive team approach will help guide you through the tougher and lonelier times on such courses and also help with the quality and ultimate utility of any course related projects. At a very practical level, obtaining these postgraduate qualifications also ensures extra points on Public Appointments Service Consultant interviews and may be the difference between getting the job you want and not. 

And I will finish this week's blog with one more film that's full of psychiatry - the truly hilarious 'What About Bob?', starring Richard Dreyfuss as the quite uptight psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin and the almost painfully funny Bill Murray playing his patient, Bob. 

Bob trying to arrange an unscheduled home-based 

appointment with Dr. Leo Marvin, his psychiatrist.