An alternative model for the psychiatric clerkship

Clinical clerkships in psychiatry are traditionally based on in-patient services and thus limit student exposure in the main to seriously ill psychiatric patients. Such clerkships have been criticized as having questionable relevance to the primary care careers which are increasingly selected by medical students. The present paper describes a clerkship in which half the students are taught on a traditional in-patient service while half go to a special medical-psychiatric unit. In the latter situation, medical and psychiatric patients are housed together and consultation-liaison experiences play a prominent part in the students' experience. Some comparative data are presented which suggest that the two clerkship experiences are equally satisfactory to the students. It is concluded that a psychiatric clerkship utilizing settings and experiences which are close in character to primary care is educationally feasible.