How recent medical school graduates evaluate the clinical relevancy of their behavioral science curriculum

Objectives for the undergraduate teaching of psychiatry: survey of doctors and students

OBJECTIVES

The principal aim was to assess the psychiatric topics that doctors and students considered most important for undergraduate teaching. Differences between doctors and students, men and women, physicians/students with or without an interest in psychiatry were examined.

DESIGN

A mailed questionnaire was used concerning the knowledge and skills of psychological/psychiatric medi- cine considered to be needed in medical practice.

SETTING

The Medical School of the University of Geneva.

SUBJECTS

Doctors and undergraduate medical students in their last 2 years of medical training.

RESULTS

Both doctors and students agreed on most topics, even though the students tended to give all items a higher rating. Both groups agreed on the importance of the following main topics: the doctor-patient relationship, identification and management of the principal psychiatric disorders and their associated risks and problems of a psychosocial nature. Those doctors showing an interest in psychiatry tended to accentuate the importance attached to interpersonal skills. The male and female doctors and students expressed very similar opinions. The female doctors, however, tended to attach greater importance to relational-emotional aspects and to disorders affecting children and adolescents than did their male colleagues, which is probably a reflection of the specific role that women still play within our society. When asked to assess the current teaching they received in medical school, the students considered that certain important aspects of psychiatry were insufficiently taught.

CONCLUSION

These results confirm the importance of teaching psychiatry with an emphasis on problems encountered in general practice.

Educational objectives for a junior psychiatry clerkship : development and rationale

Explicit instructional objectives have become essential in medical education and have been developed nationally for students in surgery, gynecology, and pediatric clerkships. The authors describe the rationale for and process of developing psychiatry clerkship objectives, first at the Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP) and then by the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry. Faculty interviews about the development of psychiatry clerkship objectives at MCP illustrate the objectives' positive educational impact.