Lehre in der Kinder- und Jugendmedizin

Teaching child and adolescent psychiatry to undergraduate medical students - A survey in German-speaking countries

OBJECTIVE

To conduct a survey about teaching child and adolescent psychiatry to undergraduate medical students in German-speaking countries.

METHODS

A questionnaire was sent to the 33 academic departments of child and adolescent psychiatry in Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

RESULTS

All departments responded. For teaching knowledge, the methods most commonly reported were lectures and case presentations. The most important skills to be taught were thought to be how to assess psychopathology in children and how to assess families. For elective courses, the departments reported using a wide range of teaching methods, many with active involvement of the students. An average of 34 hours per semester is currently allocated by the departments for teaching child and adolescent psychiatry to medical students. Required courses are often taught in cooperation with adult psychiatry and pediatrics. Achievement of educational objectives is usually assessed with written exams or multiple-choice tests. Only a minority of the departments test the achievement of skills.

CONCLUSIONS

Two ways of improving education in child and adolescent psychiatry are the introduction of elective courses for students interested in the field and participation of child and adolescent psychiatrists in required courses and in longitudinal courses so as to reach all students. Cooperation within and across medical schools can enable departments of child and adolescent psychiatry, despite limited resources, to become more visible and this specialty to become more attractive to medical students. Compared to the findings in earlier surveys, this survey indicates a trend towards increased involvement of academic departments of child and adolescent psychiatry in training medical students.

[What do medical students learn in the elective course in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry?]

OBJECTIVE

A course in child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy is optional for medical students within the Medical Curriculum Munich (MeCuMLMU). Aims of the course are to give insight into the specialty of child and adolescent psychiatry and to help students acquire basic skills. The focus is on psychopathology and on communication skills.

METHOD

A course comprising 23 teaching units and limited to twelve students is taught over four days within one week twice per semester. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is introduced by means of case presentations of children in different age groups, each with externalizing, and internalizing disorders and with developmental delay, and by a clinical round in the teaching hospital affiliated to the University. Case examples of children are presented by video. In group discussions guided by a teacher students learn to formulate a psychopathological status. Role-plays derived from the clinical examples and video-based feed-back provides students with the opportunity to improve their communication skills.

RESULTS

The course is evaluated by means of a written examination, in which a psychopathological status must be written down independently. Students and teachers evaluate the seminar in a structured way. Videotapes of the role-plays are analyzed by the teachers after the course. In a sub-sample, a follow-up evaluation was carried out six months later.

CONCLUSIONS

The seminar offers an excellent opportunity to introduce medical students to child and adolescent psychiatry and to recruit and inspire a future generation of child and adolescent psychiatrists.