background A relatively small number of psychiatrists in the Netherlands have a non-Dutch origin. We suspect that resident psychiatrists who do not have Dutch as their first language are less likely than native Dutch speakers to complete the psychiatry residency training programmes.
aim To find out how often and for what reasons resident psychiatrists do not complete the psychiatry residency training programmes.
method All course coordinators in the Netherlands were asked to participate in a survey to provide information about the residents who had started but had abandoned the psychiatry residency training programmes between the years 2008 and 2015. They were also asked about factors that had influenced residents to abandon the course.
results We were able to obtain data on 37% of the trainees. The data revealed that the number of non-native resident psychiatrists who failed to complete the training course was almost four times higher than the number of native trainee psychiatrists who dropped out before the end of the course. According to the coordinators, possible reasons for this discrepancy are lack of proficiency in Dutch, communication problems and cultural differences.
conclusion The results of our survey could possibly be used to adjust the training programmes.