Attitude of medical students towards psychiatry

Abstract

Findings are presented from a survey of all medical students at the College of Medicine, Abha, Saudi Arabia dealing with students' attitudes towards specialization in psychiatry. The health region of Asir in south-west rural Saudi Arabia, of about one million inhabitants, needs Saudi Nationals to specialize in psychiatry to provide planned future delivery of services. Medical students all over Saudi Arabia, however, have not been choosing psychiatry for their specialization after graduation. The Scientific Committee for Mental Health, convened at the Ministry of Health in Riyadh in February 1986, invited representatives of psychiatry from medical schools in the nation to discuss this priority topic. A year later, a new course called 'Introduction to Psychosomatic Medicine' was introduced as an elective for medical students with its practice at the general hospital. It tries to introduce students to 'voluntary and active as against passive learning ... and problem-solving rather than imposed memorizing' of medicalized forms of psychiatry, an innovation compared with the previous conventional method. A significant difference in attitude was demonstrated between students who had their exposure to psychiatry from this course and those who followed only the conventional methods of learning.

Attitude Towards Anatomy as a Prospective Career Among Undergraduate Medical Students

“…(2) The fresh students don't even mention anatomy as a choice of postgraduation. (3,4) The findings of the present study too confirms this fact. This attitude of the students towards anatomy is probably due to the discomfort and uneasiness they experienced during their first year of MBBS course.…”

Attitude of interns towards mental illness and psychiatry: A study from two medical colleges in South India

“…The findings are better than earlier studies(Lingeswaran, 2010;Rajagopal et al, 2004;Soufi and Raoof, 1992) however 30% considering it as unscientific is still is a significant figure. Majority (90%) had a positive opinion on the treatment efficacy which is in line with the recent study(Lyons and Janca, 2015).The attitude towards career and reward aspect of psychiatry was not very favorable, with around 40% having a negative opinion, considered psychiatry as having low prestige, were uncomfortable with mentally Ill patients, and were discouraged by friends and family from entering psychiatry.…”

“…There have been studies on attitude of students/Interns towards mental illness and psychiatry all across the world for the past many years. Results from the studies are inconsistent with some studies (Alexander and Kumaraswamy, 1993;Balon et al, 1999;Baptista et al, 1993;Pan et al, 1990) showing that medical graduates had positive opinion regarding psychiatry, psychiatrist and treatment effectiveness while other studies found that students find psychiatry as emotionally draining, financially not rewarding, socially unacceptable and less scientific (Feifel et al, 1999;Soufi and Raoof, 1992).…”

Shrinking away from psychiatry? A survey of Australianmedical students' interest in psychiatry

“…and psychiatric patients, as well as its attractiveness as a specialty [3,4]. Other factors such as personality [5,6], clinical competence [7], cultural background [8,9] and choice of medical school [10,11] also influence attitudes, however, attitudes towards psychiatry and an intention to pursue a career in that specialty are not necessarily correlated [12]. Therefore, presenting a positive view of the specialty and encouraging medical students to consider a career in psychiatry are important components of clinical training [13].…”