Spaced learning using emails to integrate psychiatry into general medical curriculum: Keep psychiatry in mind

Traditionally, medical students on clinical rotations receive instruction on principles of mental health only during the psychiatry clerkship. We used emails to insert teaching of psychiatric concepts beyond the psychiatry clerkship into other rotations using the method of spaced learning, the delivery of brief morsels of information repeated over time intervals. We predicted that the intervention would improve attitudes and confidence towards the integration of psychiatry and knowledge retention.

We developed and distributed a series of emails relating key psychiatric concepts targeted to the other core clerkships.

In a cluster-randomized trial over one academic year (intervention group n = 71, control group n = 61), scores on the Attitudes and Confidence in the Integration of Psychiatry scale and on the knowledge quiz did not differ significantly. Students who actively engaged with the emails demonstrated significantly higher scores on the knowledge test. Email users valued the timing, format of delivery and application of psychiatric principles outside the psychiatric setting. Participants recommended simplifying the format and previewing the benefits of spaced learning to increase utilization.

Delivering spaced learning through emails, within a curriculum designed to foster engagement, may provide an efficient means of addressing the widely-recognized but elusive goal of integrating teaching across medical disciplines.