Undergraduate psychiatric education: senior medical students study patients with the clinical team

A COURSE IN PSYCHIATRY FOR SENIOR MEDICAL STUDENTS, DESIGNED TO GIVE ALL MEMBERS OF THE CLASS SOME DIRECT EXPERIENCE, PARTICULARLY IN THERAPEUTIC INTERVIEWING AS WELL AS IN TOTAL PSYCHIATRIC STUDY OF PATIENTS BY THE CLINICALLY INTEGRATED WORK OF MEDICAL SPECIALISTS, PSYCHIATRIC SOCIAL WORKERS, AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGISTS IN COLLABORATION WITH PSYCHOTHERAPEUTICALLY TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED PSYCHIATRISTS IS CONDUCTED IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER: A third of the class, about 25 students, is divided into four sections of six or seven members, and each section attends five hours one forenoon a week for approximately three months. Each student, after an initial demonstration interview by the instructor, sees weekly the same two clinic patients alone, for 45-minute individual interviews, followed by a one and a half hour supervisory session. After this a 50-minute seminar or treatment review conference is followed by a similar period for writing records of interviews and summaries of the therapeutic work. Of four seminars, two are conducted by the psychiatric faculty, and one each by the social worker and the psychologist. Each student reads a written summary of all his interviews with one patient for discussion by his colleagues in the section and by the faculty from all three disciplines.