Impact of clinical rotational posting on attitude toward psychiatry of undergraduate medical students in Malaysia

BACKGROUND: Almost all over the world, psychiatry training of undergraduate medical students has been criticized to be deficient in imparting required knowledge and improving the perception of students towards psychiatry and psychiatric treatment. Considering the large mental health need gap in the community, it is essential to improve undergraduate students' attitude toward psychiatry.

AIM: Hence, this study was planned to study the impact of psychiatry clinical posting on attitude toward psychiatry of undergraduate medical students.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Undergraduate medical students undergoing psychiatry posting were assessed on the first and last day of clinical posting with the help of semi-structured proforma consisting of sociodemographic information, favored future career choice, the relevance of psychiatry to their future careers, the usefulness of particular knowledge and skills, the value of knowledge of psychiatric specialties and the utility of different settings for learning psychiatry.

RESULTS: After their clinical posting, students had a more positive attitude towards the usefulness of psychiatry knowledge in future general practice and the usefulness of psychiatry knowledge from undergraduate training in the future. Knowledge of alcohol withdrawal management, detection and management of delirium, and Mental Health Acts were perceived more essential in the future. Also, specialties such as deaddiction and child and adolescent psychiatry were felt more useful in future practice. After posting, students perceived that psychiatry can also be learned at medical and surgical wards as well as during home visits. However, despite some positive changes in attitude toward psychiatry, there was no significant change in choosing psychiatry as a career by the students after posting.

CONCLUSION: Undergraduate psychiatry training during clinical posting was able to make some positive changes in the knowledge and attitude of students. However, still, there were lacunae in some areas of concern. Preference of psychiatry as a branch of specialization was not increased after posting. This indicates the need for better reforms in psychiatry education at the undergraduate level to improve the perception of undergraduate students about psychiatry.