Ombudsman rounds revisited--a controlled study of attitudinal change in response to liaison psychiatry teaching.

The authors tested the hypothesis that the attitudes of interns in internal medicine could be positively altered by a weekly medical-psychiatric conference (ombudsman rounds) that is given for 4 months on the inpatient medical service. In order to diminish the effects of simulation a 48-item questionnaire using a Q-sort design was employed. It was given both before and after the PGY-1 year to three groups of house staff: 1) an on-site experimental group (29 subjects), 2) an on-site control group (11 subjects), and 3) an off-site control group from a sister institution (13 subjects). When compared with either control group a statistically significant number of subjects in the experimental group changed positively. When the control groups were combined even greater statistical significance was achieved. The data suggest that attitudes of internal medicine trainees may be favorably altered by medical-psychiatric conferences on inpatient wards.