Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Oct;46(5):593-598.
doi: 10.1007/s40596-022-01670-9. Epub 2022 Jun 14.

Changes in Attitudes and Confidence in the Integration of Psychiatry in Other Areas of Medicine

Nicholas Fabiano  1 , Stanley Wong  1 , Anthony Miller  2 , Zhuangzhuang Liu  3 , Jess G Fiedorowicz  4   5   6
Affiliations

Changes in Attitudes and Confidence in the Integration of Psychiatry in Other Areas of Medicine

Nicholas Fabiano et al. Acad Psychiatry. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: The authors describe how attitudes and confidence in the integration of psychiatry into other areas of medicine change over time during clinical clerkship in medical school.

Methods: From January 2015 to December 2016, medical students from the University of Iowa were recruited for a prospective study of changes in the Attitudes and Confidence in the Integration of Psychiatry Scale (ACIP) scale. The survey instrument was completed before their psychiatry clerkship, after the clerkship, and at the end of the year following that and other clinical clerkships. Other information such as gender, time spent in clerkship, USMLE Step 1 score, and clerkship grades was also collected.

Results: A total of 172 surveys were completed by 138 students. The ACIP score was significantly higher at the end of the participants' clinical clerkship (67.2 to 76.6; t=-7.72, p<0.0001). Of the two ACIP subscales, confidence increased significantly (25.6 to 33.3; t=-9.82, p<0.0001), but attitudes toward integration of psychiatry did not (41.7 to 43.4; t=-1.96, p=0.059). Similar findings were seen in the subset of 34 students for whom pre- and post-clerkship data could be matched.

Conclusions: At the end of their clinical clerkship, medical students feel more confident providing psychiatric care. The lack of significant increase in the ACIP scale's attitude subscale either demonstrates that attitude scores going into clerkship were already high and did not deteriorate, or highlights an area for clerkship curriculum development.

Keywords: Attitudes; Confidence; Medical education; Medical students; Psychiatry.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Kitzes JA, Savich RD, Kalishman S, Sander JC, Prasad A, Morris CR, et al. Fitting it all in: integration of 12 cross-cutting themes into a School of Medicine curriculum. Med Teach. 2007;29:489–94. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Butler DJ, Holloway RL, Fons D. Training the “Assertive Practitioner of Behavioral Science”: advancing a behavioral medicine track in a family medicine residency. Int J Psychiatry Med. 2013;45:311–22. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Feldman MD, Berkowitz SA. Role of behavioral medicine in primary care. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2012;25:121–7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Isaac M, Rief W. Role of behavioural and social sciences in medical education. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2009;22:184–7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mack K. Innovations in the teaching of behavioral sciences in the preclinical curriculum. Acad Psychiatry. 2005;29:471–3. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources