Influence of educational programs on attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry: Effects of psychiatric experience, gender, and personality dimensions

Abstract

Background: Attitudes of medical students form the basis for medical actions. Because of the specific characteristics of psychiatric patients, positive attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry should be a higher goal in medical education. Aim: We hypothesize that medical students in different educational programs develop different attitudes towards psychiatry. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, students enrolled in different educational programs completed the 'attitudes towards psychiatry' questionnaire (ATP-30). Data concerning experiences in psychiatry, personality traits and socio-demographic variables including gender were also analyzed. Results: The response rate of students in the PBL-curriculum (n ¼ 61) was >90%, in the traditional curriculum (n ¼ 280) >75%. Attitudes towards psychiatry of male students in the Problem-Based Learning program were equal to the female students' attitudes in both programs. Female students' attitudes in the traditional curriculum reached comparably good results while male students' displayed the worst attitudes.The personality factors 'openness to experience' and 'agreeableness' correlated significantly with positive attitudes towards psychiatry. PBL-students showed significantly more 'openness to experience'. Conclusion: Educational programs might play a role for the development of attitudes towards psychiatry, especially in male students. Factors influencing enrollment into special educational programs should also have been taken into account. An independent study with a larger number of participants will be required to support these findings.

Do Physiotherapists Have the Skill to Engage in the “Psychological” in the Bio-Psychosocial Approach?

“…Negative stereotyping and prejudices toward people with mental health issues reduce the likelihood of health workers building rapport with these patients or providing appropriate emotional support. 18 It has been shown that education about mental health issues improves the attitudes of care providers toward people presenting with mental health conditions. [18][19][20] This study aimed to collect cross-sectional data on the self-reported attitudes of physiotherapists working in Western Australia toward psychiatry and their evaluation of their undergraduate education in psychiatry and mental health.…”

Medical students’ experience and perceptions of their final rotation in psychiatry

“…In studies by Kuhnigk et al, [11,13] response rates of 86%, 88% and 93% were obtained where the 'attitudes towards psychiatry' questionnaire (ATP-30) was administered. In a study by Dixon et al [14] on medical students' attitudes to psychiatric …”

“…The significantly higher exposure to confidentiality and informed consent reported by females in our study could possibly be explained by other studies that found that females had a significantly more positive attitude towards psychiatry than their male colleagues. [11,13] This inclination may have contributed to them paying more attention to issues related to confidentiality and informed consent. The significantly higher ethics exposure score for 5th-year students could, among other things, be ascribed to the fact that the junior students are exposed to these issues for the first time and may be more consciously sensitised towards ethical behaviour.…”

“…The higher number of female respondents in our study correlates with the national and international 'feminisation' trend of increased female enrolments for medical studies. [10,13,23,24] There were fewer junior 5th-year respondents than senior respondents, which reflects the spread of clinical rotations over a period of 18 months, starting in the middle of the 5th year. The absence of significant differences between the different scores for male and female, junior and senior students, or for the rotations at different times of the year is indicative of the common exposure that would be expected in a psychiatry training setting.…”

“…[8,9] Most other reported surveys among psychiatry students relate to final-year students' attitudes to psychiatry or psychiatric illness, or to psychiatry as a career choice. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] One study conducted among 85 preregistration house officers in Norway had more similar objectives to those of our study, namely getting a sense of the learning benefits and learning environment of a psychiatry rotation. [18] This article reports on the findings of undergraduate medical students' evaluation of the final psychiatry rotation at the University of…”