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Elements of an Excellent Psychiatry Clerkship Experience: A Survey Study of Graduating Medical Students

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Abstract

Objective

One possible factor associated with choosing psychiatry as a career is students rating their psychiatry clerkship as excellent. Although this suggests that an excellent clerkship may improve recruitment into psychiatry, to our knowledge there has never been a multi-site survey study of graduating medical students that identify what factors lead to an excellent clerkship rating. The purpose of this study was to determine factors that medical student find important for an excellent psychiatry clerkship experience.

Methods

A total of 1457 graduating medical students at eight institutions were sent a 22-item Likert-type survey about what clinical and administrative factors they considered when rating their psychiatry clerkship via email in the fall of their last year. 357 (24.5%) responded and Z-test, t-tests, and multiple regression analyses were carried out.

Results

The factors which students rated higher than the mean included planned application to psychiatry residency, clear expectations, a transparent grading process, feeling part of a team, timely feedback by faculty, and a competent clerkship coordinator and director. Lectures, active learning, and self-study were rated as less pertinent, and the overall clerkship rating did differ between students going into psychiatry versus other specialties.

Conclusions

Although the low response undermines the validity of findings, by improving the administration of the clerkship with clear expectations, grading, feedback, and by encouraging clinical teams to fully integrate students clerkship ratings might improve which could potentially improve recruitment. Future research could further quantify and qualify these parameters and compare psychiatric clerkships to other clerkships.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. VA North Texas Health Care System and University of Texas – Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA

    Rachel A. Russo & Jayme M. Palka

  2. University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville, Greenville, SC, USA

    Benjamin T. Griffeth

  3. University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

    Heidi Combs & Paul R. Borghesani

  4. New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Victoria Dinsell

  5. Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Mary K. Morreale

  6. Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA

    Bethany L. Harper

  7. VA Northern California Health Care System and University of California Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA, USA

    Donald M. Hilty

  8. Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Lisa Fore-Arcand

Authors
  1. Rachel A. Russo
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  2. Benjamin T. Griffeth
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  3. Heidi Combs
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  4. Victoria Dinsell
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  5. Jayme M. Palka
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  6. Mary K. Morreale
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  7. Paul R. Borghesani
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  8. Bethany L. Harper
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  9. Donald M. Hilty
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  10. Lisa Fore-Arcand
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rachel A. Russo.

Ethics declarations

The University of Texas–Southwestern Medical Center IRB (primary site) and the IRBs from all the participating institutions (listed under Affiliations) designated this study to be exempt from review.

Disclosures

Dr. Mary Morreale is an editor for the journal Academic Psychiatry. Manuscripts that are authored by an editor undergo the same editorial review process applied to all manuscripts, including double-blinded peer review. All other authors have no disclosures.

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Russo, R.A., Griffeth, B.T., Combs, H. et al. Elements of an Excellent Psychiatry Clerkship Experience: A Survey Study of Graduating Medical Students. Acad Psychiatry 45, 174–179 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-020-01373-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-020-01373-z

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