Attitudes towards psychiatry of undergraduate medical students at Bayero University, Nigeria

Abstract

<p><strong>Background</strong>. This study determined and compared responses of 5th- and 6th (final)-year medical students on their attitudes to psychiatry as a profession. Also elicited were their choices of area of future medical specialisation.</p><p><strong>Method</strong>. A prospective and cross-sectional study using an adapted 27-item self-administered questionnaire to obtain responses from 91 5th- and 6th-year medical students at Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria.</p><p><strong>Results.</strong> More than 60% of the students’ first choices for future specialisation were surgery, obstetrics/gynaecology or internal medicine. Psychiatry was the first preference for less than 2%. More than 75% of the students’ views on the overall merits and efficacy of psychiatry were positive, although they felt that psychiatry had low prestige and status as a profession. In addition, the same proportion considered that psychiatry was scientific, making advances in the treatment of major mental disorders, and helpful in liaison practice. More than 50% stated that psychiatry would not be their choice of last resort for residency education and the same proportion felt that friends and fellow students rather than family members would discourage them from specialising in psychiatry. More than 50% would feel uncomfortable with mentally ill patients, felt that psychiatry would not be financially rewarding, and did not think that psychiatrists abuse their legal power to hospitalise patients. Attitudes of the two groups of students to psychiatry as a profession were not significantly different (p>0.05).</p><p><strong>Conclusion.</strong> A clinical clerkship in psychiatry did not influence the students’ choice of future specialisation.</p>

Views of Future Doctors on the Current Mental Health Clerkship Programme of a Nigerian University

“…Up to a quarter of our study participants, whose mean age was similar to that of another Nigerian study [16,17], considered psychiatry as a possible future career, a finding similar to that of Andlauer and colleagues in France [18] though far higher than that reported by Aghukwa in Nigeria [16]. The determining variables include provision of an exemplary psychiatry clerkship [19], the student's grade in the subject [17,18], and charismatic teaching, mentorship and stigma reduction [10].…”

Attitudes Toward Psychiatry Among Medical Students With a Psychiatric Major at Chongqing Medical University

“…To the question, 10% strongly disagreed, 48.2% disagreed, 31.4% were neutral, 15.2% agreed, and 0.5% strongly agreed. This question may involve complex factors, such as views about low status, the patient's treatment effect, income, and others (14)(15)(16).…”

Recruitment into Psychiatry: An International Challenge

“…Enabling us to address the issue of recruitment requires an understanding of not just what attract students and doctors to psychiatry but also what turns them off the speciality. A number of authors from various countries have looked closely at what students' views of psychiatry are [2, 17–18] and why those who do look favourably on the speciality as students do not choose to follow it as a career [19]. Feifel et al [2] in a survey of new entrants to US medical schools found that whilst many valued elements of clinical practice that are central to psychiatry, aligning closely with those detailed by Brown et al above, they viewed psychiatry as the least attractive of the various medical specialities asked about.…”