Resident doctors

Your career as a resident doctor in psychiatry

As a resident doctor with an interest in psychiatry, you’ll contribute directly to patient care while shaping your future career. Although you’ll face unique challenges, postgraduate psychiatrty training has many benefits:

• Structured learning and skills development—You’ll follow a formal, supervised training pathway with defined curricula, assessments, and increasing responsibilities. This will help you gain advanced clinical knowledge and practical experience and develop complex decision-making skills.
• Broad clinical experience—You’ll rotate through various medical and surgical specialties and different healthcare settings. This will help you to see and reflect on a range of conditions, patient demographics, and team dynamics.
• Clear pathway to specialisation—Postgraduate training is designed for career progression towards becoming a consultant psychiatrist. It provides a defined route with the following stages:
  
  • Foundation training
  • Core psychiatry training
  • Higher psychiatry training

Navigating postgraduate medical training involves understanding the curricula, rotations, assessments, and exams to achieve your training goals.

Learn more about postgraduate psychiatry training in Scotland.

Time out of training

Taking time out of training is a recognised part of a doctor’s career. There may be various reasons for pausing your postgraduate medical training:

• Out of programme for training (OOPT)
• Out of programme for research (OOPR)
• Out of programme experience (OOPE)
• Out of programme career break (OOPC)
• Out of programme pause (OOPP)

Explore your options for taking time out.

Less than full-time training

Starting psychiatry training is rewarding, but it is also demanding. Many resident doctors want to achieve a sustainable work-life balance, manage personal commitments, or have time for other interests alongside their professional development.

Find out more about less than full-time training.

Scottish Clinical Leadership Fellowship

Are you interested in developing your skills beyond clinical practice? The Scottish Clinical Leadership Fellowship (SCLF) offers you a unique opportunity to gain experience in leadership, management, and health policy.

Discover how SCLF can enhance your career and allow you to contribute to the wider healthcare system.

Find out more about SCLF.