Medical students' attitudes towards psychiatry improve following psychiatry clinical placements: the ATPP study
The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice
ISSN: 1755-6228
Article publication date: 19 August 2021
Issue publication date: 31 August 2021
Abstract
Purpose
In previous research, personality and exposure to psychiatry were independently shown to shape medical students attitudes towards psychiatry (ATP). This paper aims to investigate the role of psychiatry placements and personality types on medical student attitudes towards psychiatry (ATP).
Design/methodology/approach
All medical students from four consecutive years at Cambridge University, UK were invited to take part in an online questionnaire including the ATP-30 Questionnaire and The Big Five Factor personality Inventory (BFI).
Findings
Students who had completed their psychiatry placement had more positive ATP than students who had not (t = −3.24, adjusted p = 0.004). However, this was not reflected in an increased self-reported likelihood of choosing psychiatry as a career (t = 0.28, adjusted p = 0.78). Higher agreeable personality scores were associated with both a higher willingness to take up psychiatry as a career (linear model estimate 0.06; p = 0.03), and more positive ATP (linear model estimate 0.14; p < 0.0001).
Originality/value
This work seems to confirm that exposure to psychiatry improves attitudes towards psychiatry. Agreeable personality traits were also associated with a higher willingness to take up psychiatry postgraduate training. These findings might help shape future campaigns to improve the profile of psychiatry training. Future research on this topic is needed to address whether improved ATP among medical students can longitudinally improve recruitment into post-graduate psychiatry training.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Author Contributions: All authors contributed to the design of the study, set up of the questionnaires and data collection. EFO performed the statistical analyses. All authors contributed to the drafting of the manuscript. The study team would like to thank Barry Widmer for the support in setting up REDCap, the platform used for electronically administering the questionnaires. Data were collected and managed using REDCap (Harris et al, 2009) tools hosted at the University of Cambridge, supported by the BRC. REDCap is a secure, web-based application designed to support data capture for research studies, providing (1) an intuitive interface for validated data entry; (2) audit trails for tracking data manipulation and export procedures; (3) automated export procedures for seamless data downloads to common statistical packages; and (4) procedures for importing data from external sources. This work was funded by a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Academic Clinical Fellowship to Dr Osimo. Dr Wilkinson contributed to prize draws for participants. The funding bodies had no role in design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data; preparation, review or approval of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.Financial disclosures: Dr Wilkinson is psychiatry placement lead until December 2020 and Clinical Dean from January 2021 at Cambridge University. All authors are psychiatrists. The authors have no other conflict of interests or financial disclosures to declare.
Citation
Osimo, E.F., Mariner, L. and Wilkinson, P. (2021), "Medical students' attitudes towards psychiatry improve following psychiatry clinical placements: the ATPP study", The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, Vol. 16 No. 5, pp. 410-417. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-01-2021-0007
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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