Assessment of the Delineation of Psychopathology by Medical Students

Assessment in undergraduate psychiatric education

“…The present results are in accord with those few studies of psychiatric education in medical students which have indicated a lack of correlation between a student's ability to pass written examinations and the ability to make accurate clinical observations. Thus, these findings replicate work using the BPRS in a similar manner with medical students at a different Australian University (Goldney et al 1983), and extend it by demonstrating no correlation between the rating scale for history‐taking interview and final examination scores. They are also similar to the British work of Sturgeon (1979), who, on the basis of medical students rating various aspects of mental state on a seven‐point scale and comparing these ratings to those of teachers, reported an ‘absence of correlation between a student's ability to pass a written examination and his clinical ability to make accurate observations’.…”

“…Thus, it has been reported that clinicians usually make diagnoses within the first 5 minutes of assessment (Kendell 1973), and so after a diagnosis is made little attention might be paid to specific details of psychopathology. Such a possibility was also entertained in an earlier study in which a patient with uncomplicated paranoid schizophrenia was depicted (Goldney et al 1983), and for this reason a patient with a chronic pain condition, with a history of depression and suicidal ideation, but with a lack of affective response, was chosen in the present study Stall members considered that several diagnostic possibilities were reasonable and these required continuous re‐assessment during the interview, and therefore students would be required to examine more clearly the different elements of psychopathology before effecting closure on the diagnosis than in the previous study.…”

“…Thus, several recent publications have, perhaps unexpectedly, demonstrated no correlation between the ability to delineate accurately psychopathology and other measures of psychiatric academic achievement (Sturgeon 1979; Orleans et al . 1980; Goldney et al . 1983) or, indeed, other non‐psychiatric academic performance (Goldney et al .…”

“…1980; Goldney et al . 1983) or, indeed, other non‐psychiatric academic performance (Goldney et al . 1983).…”

“…Thus, if a student rated that item in a similar manner, he or she would score 7. If the ratings were one off that consensus, the score given was 6 and so on, as was done in an earlier study (Goldney et al 1983).…”