A mandatory clinical clerkship in child psychiatry: a description and evaluation

We describe a mandatory clinical clerkship in which students spend one day a week for six weeks assessing and treating a child and family and participate in seminars on common child psychiatric syndromes and their treatments. In two of three settings, two students were assigned to each child and family and in the third setting, one student was assigned. We assessed their satisfaction by a mailed survey and found each student seemed to be satisfied with his/her own experience. The administrative advantages of having two students for each family are outlined. Also a rank order of preference of seminar content was assessed. Seminars on depression, conduct disorders, attention deficit disorders and family assessment were most appreciated.