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Developing Psychiatric Competence During Medical Education and Internship: Contributing Factors

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Abstract

The study describes the learning process in psychiatry of medical students through their clerkship and internship, It focused upon the development of students’ attitudes to psychiatry, subjective psychiatric competence and self-confidence. The relationships between the participants’ background, aspects of the learning environment, their attitudes to psychiatry, psychiatric competence and psychiatric self-confidence were explored in order to develop an empirical model of the learning process.

The participants were medical students at the University of Tromsoe, Norway. The study was prospective and based on students’ self-reports, Structural panel modelling and growth curve analyses were used to explore the complex interactions between the variables over time and to create a model of the learning processes. The medical students significantly increased their subjective competence and psychiatric self-confidence during their clerkship in psychiatry and maintained them during their internship. Previous psychiatric experience, attitudes towards psychiatry and current psychiatric experience contributed to subjective psychiatric competence, Competence in turn had a positive effect on self-confidence. Interestingly, those with greater subjective competence also appeared to have more psychiatric experience during their internship. An empirical model of the important aspects of the learning process was developed.

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Acknowledgement

The study has been supported by grant from Psychiatric Research Centre of Northern Norway. We are grateful for the participating medical students’ contributions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatric Research and Development, University Hospital of Northern Norway, N-9291 , ÅsgÅrd, Tromsø, Norway

    Tordis Sørensen Høifødt

  2. Psychiatric Research Centre of Northern Norway, University Hospital of Northern Norway, N-9291, ÅsgÅrd, Tromsø, Norway

    Reidun Olstad

  3. Psychiatric Research Centre of Northern Norway, University Hospital of Northern Norway, N-9291, ÅsgÅrd, Tromsø, Norway

    Hal Sexton

Authors
  1. Tordis Sørensen Høifødt
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  2. Reidun Olstad
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  3. Hal Sexton
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tordis Sørensen Høifødt.

Appendix

Appendix

Psychiatric competence

Some of the questions were phrased positively and some negatively. The scores were subsequently recoded so that high scores indicated what was considered to be positive.

  1.  1.

    I easily get into good contact with patients.

  2.  2.

    I feel confident in meeting patients with psychiatric problems.

  3.  3.

    I feel insecure in meeting psychotic patients.

  4.  4.

    I experience helplessness in meeting patients with suicidal thoughts.

  5.  5.

    I am aware of my own attitudes to suicide.

  6.  6.

    I am insecure in how to identify suicidal risk in patients.

  7.  7.

    I feel confident in what questions to ask to receive important information about suicidal risk.

  8.  8.

    I know how to assess suicidal risk in patients.

  9.  9.

    When I meet a patient in an acute suicidal crisis, I know what to do.

  10. 10.

    I know how to carry out a psychiatric examination.

  11. 11.

    I can become insecure when patients arouse feelings and thoughts in me.

  12. 12.

    I know little about aetiology of psychiatric illness.

  13. 13.

    I have good understanding of psychiatric illness.

  14. 14.

    I have limited knowledge about psychiatric medication.

  15. 15.

    I am well acquainted with different kinds of psychotherapy for psychiatric illness.

  16. 16.

    I think it is important that the family and network is included in the treatment.

  17. 17.

    I am well aware of the different tasks the doctor has in the interdisciplinary work.

  18. 18.

    I am well aware of the tasks of the general practioner in taking care of patients with psychiatric illness.

  19. 19.

    I am uncertain about the tasks of the psychiatrists and specialist services,

  20. 20.

    I am well acquainted with the Mental Health Act.

  21. 21.

    I know the conditions/criteria for admittance of patients to psychiatric hospital against their own will.

  22. 22.

    I do not know how involuntary admittance to the hospital is carried out in practice.

  23. 23.

    I am well aware of the ethical problems in dealing with coercion.

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Høifødt, T.S., Olstad, R. & Sexton, H. Developing Psychiatric Competence During Medical Education and Internship: Contributing Factors. Adv in Health Sci Educ 12, 457–473 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-006-9010-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-006-9010-x

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