Medical Students' Attitude towards Psychiatry

Abstract

The attitudes of medical students are important as they influence recruitment to psychiatry. In order to better understand the attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry and the impact of psychiatric clerkship, the authors administered a questionnaire eliciting information regarding demographic data, attitudes and career choices to third year medical students of the University of Ottawa, at the beginning and end of their four week psychiatric clerkship. The data suggests that the students found their clerkship experience valuable and rewarding and expressed an interest in knowing more about psychiatry. The students' perception of the various aspects of their clinical practice of psychiatry became more positive after the clerkship. The authors have identified the positive and negative experiences the students had during their clerkship and postulate that the change in attitude is directly due to their clerkship experience.

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

“…The attitude of medical students towards psychiatry is of importance, being germane to the recruitment of prospective psychiatrists [25]. A question therefore arises: what characterizes students interested in pursuing a career in psychiatry, and at what point during their training are these intentions formed?…”

Attitude towards Mental illness and Psychiatry among the Medical students and Interns in a University Medical College

“…12,13 Increasing manpower demand in Psychiatry is however not keeping pace with supply. 1,5,[14][15][16][17] There are several studies showing signifi cant positive changes in students' attitude after their psychiatric training, [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] making doctors more responsive to the psychological dimension of physical illness. 25,[32][33][34][35][36] Keeping these paradoxical issues in mind, we intended to conduct a study aiming to assess and compare the differences in attitude towards mental illnesses and Psychiatry among the medical students in different semesters and the interns undergoing compulsory rotatory internship.…”

Attitudes and Confidence in the Integration of Psychiatry Scale

“…Educational interventions can impact both attitudes and confidence [17, 18], which are often correlated. Although there are several measures related to attitudes toward psychiatry [19–23], we found no measures assessing attitudes or confidence in specifically integrating psychiatric and behavioral principles into general medical practice. We thus developed and validated a scale: Attitudes and Confidence in Integration of Psychiatry in Medicine (ACIP) as a tool to measure students’ attitudes and confidence related to such integration.…”