Medical students and psychiatric patients: an encounter of the first kind.

The use of psychiatric patients in teaching interview techniques to inexperienced medical students is a common practice. This report describes the impact of this training as assessed through questionnaire analysis of 35 patients and 32 medical students involved in an interview course for second-year medical students. The experience was viewed by both patients and students as useful, and more students reported it as being stressful than did patients. Patients valued it because they thought it would improve medical education, while students found it personally helpful. Most patients (94 percent) and all students indicated they would participate in a similar experience. Most patients felt that the students understood them well in contrast to the student's perception of not understanding the patient.