Objective: Efforts to improve the psychiatric competence of the genera
l medical workforce must include an appraisal of how psychiatry is tau
ght in medical schools, As a contribution to this appraisal a descript
ion is given of psychiatric education in the innovative undergraduate
medical curriculum at the University of Newcastle. Method: An outline
of the features which characterise medical education at Newcastle is p
rovided and the way in which the teaching of psychiatry is organised w
ithin this framework is presented. Results: The characteristics of the
Newcastle undergraduate program in psychiatry include its integration
with teaching in other clinical and basic science disciplines, contin
uity throughout the entire five years of the course, and the emphasis
on skills acquisition and their assessment. Conclusions: The relative
merits and disadvantages of the Newcastle approach to undergraduate ps
ychiatry education are presented and the problem of assessing the effe
ctiveness of this approach by outcomes measurement, particularly of in
tegrated competencies and their application in general medical setting
s, is discussed.