CHANGING THE ATTITUDES OF TOMORROWS DOCTORS TOWARDS MENTAL-ILLNESS AND PSYCHIATRY - A COMPARISON OF 2 TEACHING-METHODS

The General Medical Council's document 'Tomorrow's Doctors' (1993, GMC , London) recommended major changes in the undergraduate curricula of UK medical schools. In Nottingham, the fourth-year psychiatric attachm ent became shorter in duration, and interactive, problem-oriented, wor kshop-based learning replaced lectures. We compared the efficacy of th is new teaching style in changing medical students' attitudes towards psychiatry and mental illness with that of old-style, didactic, lectur e-based teaching. On the first and last days of their psychiatric atta chment, 110 fourth-year medical students (45 old curriculum; 65 new cu rriculum) completed two self-administered attitudinal measures: the At titude to Psychiatry Questionnaire (ATP-SO) and the Attitude to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMI). We found that students had favourable at titudes towards psychiatry and mental illness before the attachment. T hese attitudes became more positive after the attachment in students f rom both curricula, with no significant difference between the groups and no gender difference. Students found patient contact rewarding, be come more accepting of community care, and had greater appreciation of the therapeutic potential of psychiatric interventions. The interacti ve, student-centred, problem-oriented teaching of the shortened new cu rriculum appeared as effective in changing medical students' attitudes as a longer attachment with traditional teaching.