Abstract

Objectives: Psychiatry education in medical schools seems to be given little attention and has not been fully integrated into curriculum. In this study our purpose was to get feedback about all phases of psychiatry clerkship from medical students, who completed psychiatry clerkship.
Methods: A 31 item questionnaire investigating the views of medical students about psychiatry clerkship and a socio-demographic survey were given to the medical students, who completed psychiatry clerkship and signed informed consent prior to study procedures.
Results: A total of 208 students agreed and signed consent to participate in the study. The number of female and male students were 114 & 94, respectively and mean age was 22.7±1.02. Most of the students (89%) expected from the lecturers “to teach how to manage aggressive patients.” Seventy six percent of students specified the requirement of consultation liasion education because “psychiatric symptoms could be seen in general medical conditions.” Seventy percent of students reported that they wanted to watch and discuss standart patient video records. Fifty three percent of the students emphasized that “Psychiatry examination was only assessing knowledge, but not the skills.” Seventy eight percent of students reported that “they wished to follow up the patients along a resident’’ and 64% “with an attending.” Also, 54% of students supported to participate in a research project or seminar related to psychiatry (e.g. neuroimmunology, neuroanatomy, psychoendocrinology) in previous years.
Conclusion: The efforts to increase interest and improve outcome and effectiveness in psychiatry clerkship education have become more important. This is the first study on this topic in our country. To improve outcome and effectiveness in psychiatry clerkship education, the educators should find the balance between the views of medical students and experienced faculty members about the topics to be taught during the rotation.

Key words: psychiatry, psychiatryclerkship education, curriculum, clinical skills training