Teaching child and adolescent psychiatry to undergraduate medical students - A survey in German-speaking countries

Abstract

ObjectiveTo conduct a survey about teaching child and adolescent psychiatry to undergraduate medical students in German-speaking countries.MethodsA questionnaire was sent to the 33 academic departments of child and adolescent psychiatry in Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking part of Switzerland.ResultsAll departments responded. For teaching knowledge, the methods most commonly reported were lectures and case presentations. The most important skills to be taught were thought to be how to assess psychopathology in children and how to assess families. For elective courses, the departments reported using a wide range of teaching methods, many with active involvement of the students. An average of 34 hours per semester is currently allocated by the departments for teaching child and adolescent psychiatry to medical students. Required courses are often taught in cooperation with adult psychiatry and pediatrics. Achievement of educational objectives is usually assessed with written exams or multiple-choice tests. Only a minority of the departments test the achievement of skills.ConclusionsTwo ways of improving education in child and adolescent psychiatry are the introduction of elective courses for students interested in the field and participation of child and adolescent psychiatrists in required courses and in longitudinal courses so as to reach all students. Cooperation within and across medical schools can enable departments of child and adolescent psychiatry, despite limited resources, to become more visible and this specialty to become more attractive to medical students. Compared to the findings in earlier surveys, this survey indicates a trend towards increased involvement of academic departments of child and adolescent psychiatry in training medical students.

Child and adolescent psychiatry: which knowledge and skills do primary care physicians need to have? A survey in general practitioners and paediatricians

“…During medical school, CAP teaching usually occurs in year 4 or 5 and is compulsory, comprising a mix of lectures and of clinical/bedside teaching [13]. Postgraduate paediatric or PCP training covers 5 years.…”

“…Regarding teaching methods, lectures and case presentations are the child and psychiatric teaching methods most often used in Germany [13], Europe [27], USA [7], Australia [47] and Japan [20]. Unfortunately, these teaching approaches which are based on direct instruction or lecturing are extremely ineffective in transferring medical skills [5].…”

“…The absence of a primary care relevant curriculum is further aggravated by the fact that there is often only little exposure to CAP during medical school or in postgraduate training [13,48]. Therefore, medical school CAP content should be tailored with the needs of the prospective primary care providers in mind.…”

Universitäre Lehre der Anästhesiologie

“…Bei einer im Mai 2011 durchgeführten PubMed-Recherche mit den MeSH-Suchbegriffen "Student", "Curriculum" und "Germany" ließen sich 5 vergleichbare Untersuchungen zum Status der universitären Lehre in anderen Fächern finden [1,4,6,8,9]. Speziell auf das Fach Anästhe-siologie bezogen ergab die Suche mit den MeSH-Begriffen "Anaesthesia", "Curriculum" und "Undergraduate" sogar nur eine einzige publizierte Erhebung zum internationalen Vergleich der anästhesiologi-schen Lehre für Studierende [5].…”

“…Zudem stellt sich die Frage, ob das M2-Examen als geeignetes Ergebniskriterium für die konzeptionellen Bemühungen in der studentischen Lehre geeignet ist. Auch andere vergleichbare Umfragen [1,4,5,6,8,9] vermögen trotz größter Bemühungen keine eindeutigen Erkenntnisse hinsichtlich eines besseren Lehr-und Lernerfolgs in Abhängigkeit von strukturellen Ausbildungskonzepten zu liefern.…”