Early Exposure to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Through a Preclinical Elective: Unexpected Lessons From the Medical Student Perspective

Abstract

Medical school can feel like a race to the finish given the whirlwind of endless information, systems to learn, and pressure to quickly find one’s life calling. There tends to be urgency to become an expert for United States Medical Licensing Examination exams, shelf exams, and clinical rounds. Students don’t want to lose any time in finding their path so they can focus on optimizing their residency applications. Child and adolescent psychiatry is a specialty that is often overlooked given the minimal time allocated to it.1,2 Not all medical schools have capacity or faculty to encourage and promote its concepts or clinical experiences.