The junior medical student psychiatry clerkship: curriculum, attitudes, and test performance.

OBJECTIVE

The third-year clerkship provides fundamental psychiatric training experience for medical students at Ohio State University. The authors aimed to assess students' attitudes toward this clerkship, as well as its quality and its relationship to standardized measures of performance.

METHODS

Pre- and post-surveys using Likert-type scales were conducted.

RESULTS

The majority of students appeared to have favorable attitudes at the beginning of the clerkship, and students with initial neutral attitudes seemed to develop more favorable attitudes at the conclusion of the rotation. Students demonstrated definitive attitudes toward various curriculum components that were currently in place.

CONCLUSION

These findings reaffirm that timing of the rotation is a critical factor in standardized test performance. Data from this baseline study were utilized to modify the existing clerkship experience. Further research is underway to determine its impact.