First Department of Psychiatry, Medical School, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece; University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, Greece.
First Department of Psychiatry, Medical School, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece; University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, Greece.
Psychiatry Res. 2017 Dec;258:108-115. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.10.009. Epub 2017 Oct 3.
Medical students' attitudes to mental illnesses and psychiatry may be reshaped during the psychiatric training, with important implications in their future practice of the profession. Therefore, the present study set out to explore the impact of the psychiatric clerkship in students' attitudes, while taking into consideration the site of their practical training. To this end, a total of 678 final-year medical students were recruited. Students completed a self-reported questionnaire entailing the Attitudes to Psychiatry scale, the Attitudes to Mental Illness scale and the Greek Social Distance scale before and after their placement. Findings indicate that the psychiatric clerkship had a positive effect in reducing stigma towards both psychiatry and mental illnesses, with the effect being more pronounced in the general hospital with respect to the former, while in the specialty hospital was more marked regarding the latter. A further exploration of the determinants of change revealed that the improvement discerned in the general hospital was only among those without professional experience of mental illnesses. Therefore, the psychiatric clerkship may exert a substantial influence on shaping favourable attitudes towards mental illnesses and psychiatry; however, other elements should also be taken into consideration, if the clerkship is to tackle stigma in healthcare.
医学生对精神疾病和精神病学的态度可能会在精神病学培训期间发生变化，这对他们未来从事该专业的实践具有重要意义。因此，本研究旨在探讨精神病学实习对学生态度的影响，同时考虑到他们实习的地点。为此，共招募了 678 名临床医学专业的最后一年的学生。学生们在实习前后完成了一份自我报告问卷，其中包括《精神病学态度量表》、《对精神疾病的态度量表》和《希腊社会距离量表》。调查结果表明，精神病学实习对减少对精神病学和精神疾病的污名化有积极影响，而在综合医院的影响更为显著，而在专科医院则对后者更为明显。进一步探讨变化的决定因素表明，在综合医院中观察到的改善仅见于那些没有精神疾病专业经验的学生。因此，精神病学实习可能对塑造对精神疾病和精神病学的有利态度产生重大影响；然而，如果实习要解决医疗保健中的污名化问题，还应考虑其他因素。
