ABSTRACT: Effect of Medical Education on Students’ Attitudes Toward Psychiatry and Individuals With Mental Disorders
OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore the effect of medical education on students’ attitudes toward psychiatry and psychiatric patients, and examined the usefulness of a new evaluation tool: the Psychiatric Experience, Attitudes, and Knowledge: 6 Items (PEAK-6). METHOD Authors studied the attitudes of 116 medical students toward psychiatry and individuals with mental disorders, using two questionnaires before and after a 12-week module of “psychosocial medicine.” Results of the questionnaire Attitudes Toward Psychiatry: 30 Items (ATP-30) were compared with the results of PEAK-6. RESULTS With the ATP-30, no change in attitudes toward psychiatry was observed at the end of the module. With the PEAK-6, the item “attitude toward psychiatry” significantly improved. Knowledge of and experience with psychiatry as well as knowledge of and experience with individuals with mental disorders improved significantly; however, attitudes toward individuals with mental disorders did not improve. CONCLUSION PEAK-6 seems to be a promising tool with regard to nuanced information about psychiatric learning experiences. Participation in a psychiatric module may be associated with a positive effect on students’ knowledge about, experience with, and attitudes toward psychiatry, but not attitudes toward psychiatric patients.
via Effect of Medical Education on Students’ Att… [Acad Psychiatry. 2013] – PubMed – NCBI.
Written by Brian S McGowan, PhD
Dr. McGowan has served in leadership positions in numerous medical educational organizations and commercial supporters and is a Fellow of the Alliance (FACEhp). He founded the Outcomes Standardization Project, launched and hosted the Alliance Podcast, and most recently launched and hosts the JCEHP Emerging Best Practices in CPD podcast. In 2012 he Co-Founded ArcheMedX, Inc, a healthcare informatics and e-learning company to apply his research in practice.
