The teaching of consultation-liaison psychiatry in the undergraduate curriculum of Canadian medical schools.

The teaching of consultation liaison psychiatry in the undergraduate curriculum of the 16 Canadian medical schools and the views of the directors of undergraduate psychiatric education were surveyed with a 25-item questionnaire. Some teaching in consultation liaison psychiatry is provided by 14 medical schools. The predominant format of teaching is that of supervised experience, and systematic evaluation of this teaching is uniformly absent. The amount of consultation liaison teaching was small. More than 90% of the students were assigned primarily or exclusively to an inpatient service during their psychiatric clerkship. The majority of the respondents thought that the response of staff and students to the teaching of consultation liaison was good or excellent, that this teaching should be an obligatory part of the curriculum, that it would increase in the next five years, that insufficient staff was a factor impeding it, and that an increase in staff psychiatrists specializing in consultation liaison psychiatry would facilitate this teaching in their department. It is suggested that the consultation liaison psychiatry teaching of medical students should be increased, in the short term by making greater use of services and resources. In the longer term, however, such increase would be dependent on the growth and development of consultation liaison services in the teaching hospitals across the country.