Current Issues in Undergraduate Psychiatry Education: The Findings of a Qualitative Study

Abstract

Recruitment into psychiatry is correlated with the quality of undergraduate medical school teaching programmes and with a commitment of major resources to teaching students. There is an extensive literature related to attitudes towards psychiatry but less on the learning and teaching of psychiatry. To identify the current issues in undergraduate psychiatric education in the UK for lead teachers at UK medical schools. Semi-structured telephone interviews with psychiatric leads at UK medical schools. A total of 26 participants were interviewed from 23 different medical schools. Three key areas of problems were identified: issues related to teaching personnel (e.g. conflict of time), teaching resources and impact of teaching on recruitment (e.g. role models; stigma). Eight potential solutions to address the problems were identified and these included improving the quality of teaching, improving the perceived value of the discipline and recruiting teachers. There are several problems facing teachers in psychiatry but the teachers are also able to identify solutions which need support from both education and health if they are to be implemented.