Doha, March 29 (QNA) - Hamad Medical Corporation's (HMC) Mental Health Service announced that all of their medical residents in the Psychiatry Residency Training Program achieved a 100% pass rate in the recent Arab Board Exams.
Nine residents successfully passed part 1 of Arab Board exam, which is taken two years into their Residency; and five residents completed the second part of Arab Board exams, denoting the completion of the four-year training period and their readiness to take the final clinical exams later this year before they become fully qualified psychiatrists.
Dr. Majid Al Abdulla, Chairman of Psychiatry and Medical Director of the Mental Health Service praised the achievement, saying it was a testament to HMC's ongoing commitment to professional education and development of staff.
"HMC has always been dedicated to delivering a high standard of education for our trainee doctors and we are determined to ensure that the caliber of Psychiatry residents who have qualified trough HMC is on par with international levels. The strength of our training program has resulted in more medical students considering psychiatry as their field of specialization," said Dr. Al Abdulla. "This year around 30 students applied to join the Psychiatry residency program, they are competing for up to 10 placement vacancies. The Psychiatry residency program has become much more popular among the new generation of medical students and we have seen many applications for medicine at both Qatar University and Weil Cornell Medicine, which is an excellent outcome of our efforts".
Psychiatry residents played an important role in the COVID-19 pandemic efforts from the beginning. The program deployed five residents to work in different COVID-19 sites for several months, providing onsite assessment and counselling to patients as well as staff. The remaining residents were assigned to help cover clinical duties, including the emergency department during on-call shifts to ensure patients received the best psychiatric care possible despite the pandemic situation.
The Mental Health Service, in collaboration with Medical Education, expanded the professional specialization opportunities for medical students by adding two new fellowship programs. The Learning Disability Fellowship and Women's Mental Health Fellowship are important contributions to the professional education portfolio at HMC. In addition, efforts are well underway in the development of a fellowship in Addiction Medicine, which will have a positive impact on enhancing Mental Health services.
Dr. Zerak Al Salihy -Senior Consultant Geriatric Psychiatrist at HMC and Psychiatry Residency Program Director, Mental Health Service, explained the strategic aim is to promote well-rounded psychiatrists.
"We believe that we can best serve our future patients by promoting a high caliber of next generation doctors in psychiatry. We want our young psychiatrists to be high achievers in academic terms but also be able to demonstrate compassion, empathy and patient centered care and therefore these are essential aspects of their overall training," said Dr. Al Salihy.
The internationally accredited training programs are delivered in English, however, for mental health services, a particular emphasis is placed on competency in a variety of languages, alongside Arabic, to reflect Qatar's multi-lingual population.
The Arab Board for Health Specializations (ABHS) aims at advancing the medical knowledge in the Arab countries. ABHS offers training programs and administer certification examinations in various medical specialties, including Psychiatry. (QNA)