Sir,
The World Psychiatric Association (WPA) defines an early career psychiatrist as a psychiatrist in training or with <5 years elapsed since completion of residency training.[1] This phase is extremely important in the context of one's career trajectory in terms of clinical training, academic training as well as identification of one's areas of research interest. Psychiatry is passing through an exciting phase of advancement as a science and it would be apt to term the current early career psychiatrists as torchbearers of the future. It is in acknowledgement of this fact; there has been recent widespread emphasis on specific nurturing of this community of young psychiatrists.
The various organizations constituted for this purpose in recent years include The WPA early career psychiatrists council, the European Psychiatric Association Early Career Psychiatrists Committee and Asian Federation of Early Career Psychiatrists. The broad objectives of these associations include better liaison and communication between early career psychiatrists of different countries, promote their participation in various scientific meetings by offering fellowship or funding, organization of special symposium tracks for this community of young psychiatrists, mentor-mentee activities that would help in identification of specific issues in training, clinical practice and research activities and addressing the same.[1,2]
Some of the completed activities of the WPA early psychiatrist council include translation of slides on depression and diabetes into various languages and survey of psychotherapy-training and practice in Europe.[3] These organizations are expected to address the stigma associated with choice of psychiatry as the specialization after undergraduate medical education as well as provide valuable academic inputs to the other professional psychiatric organizations across the globe.
To summarize, early career psychiatric organizations are expected to provide a launching pad to talented young psychiatrists across the globe as well as provide mechanisms of redressal for impediments faced by young psychiatrists in their early clinical, academic and research careers. Conscious efforts needs to be taken to promote the activities of these organizations that are expected to nurture and produce a pool of talented psychiatrists across the globe.
REFERENCES
- 1.www.wpanet.org. World Psychiatric Association c2011-14. [Last cited on 2013 Nov 28; Last updated on 2013 Nov 3]. Available from: http://www.wpanet.org/detail.php?section_id=22&content_id=300 .
- 2.www.europsy.net. European Psychiatric Association c2011-13. [Last cited on 2013 Nov 28; Last updated on 2013 Oct 26]. Available from: http://www.europsy.net/what-we-do/early-career-psychiatrists/activities .
- 3.Fiorillo A, Brambhatt P, Elkholy H, Lattova Z, Picon F. Activities of the WPA early career psychiatrists council: The action plan is in progress. World Psychiatry. 2011;10:159. doi: 10.1002/j.2051-5545.2011.tb00041.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]