%0 Journal Article
%T Impact of clerkship in the attitudes toward psychiatry among Portuguese medical students
%A Miguel Xavier
%A Jos¨¦ C Almeida
%J BMC Medical Education
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-6920-10-56
%X Two self-report questionnaires were administered to all 6th year students in a medical school in Lisbon, before and after a 4-weeks full-time psychiatric clerkship, in order to evaluate attitudes toward psychiatry and intention to follow psychiatry in the future. Statistical analysis included Wilcoxon and Chi-square tests.153 students (60.8% female) filled in both questionnaires (no dropouts). After the clerkship, there was a significant improvement regarding the overall merits of psychiatry, efficacy, role definition and functioning of psychiatrists, use of legal powers to hospitalize patients and specific medical school factors. There was also a significant increase of students decided or considering the possibility to take a residency in psychiatry.However, perceptions of low prestige and negative pressure from family and peers regarding a future choice of psychiatry remained unchanged in about one-third of the students.The results indicate clearly that the clerkship had a favorable overall impact on the student attitude towards psychiatry, as well as in the number of students considering a future career in psychiatry. Attitudes toward psychiatry seems a promising outcome indicator of the clerkship's quality, but further research is needed in order to assess its reliability as a sound predictor of recruitment.Portugal, like many other countries [1-5], is currently struggling with a shortage of psychiatrists in its public health system. Though not with the severity found in other countries, the ratio of psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants found in Portugal, a country with 10 million inhabitants, is still clearly inferior to that existing in the more developed countries in the European Union.According to the available data [6], Portugal's ratio (4,7/100.000) is in stark contrast with those found in Central and North European countries (Sweden - 20/100.000, France - 22/100.000, UK - 11/100.000), as well as with Southern European countries (Italy - 9,8/100.000, Gre
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/10/56