Medical students' experience with psychiatric diagnoses in a family medicine clerkship

Background: Many medical schools require a family medicine clerkship, yet l ittle is known about the quantity and diversity of the diagnoses encountere d by the students. Purpose: This study examines patients encountered with psychiatric diagnose s using quantitative data collected by students in a family practice clerks hip. Methods: Over a 2-year period, 445 students completed 3,320 patient encount er forms for patients with a psychiatric diagnosis, noting their comfort le vel and responsibilities. Results: The patients' diagnoses reflect those seen in a typical family pra ctice. Of the 71, 869 presenting diagnoses, 3,548 were for a psychiatric co ndition, most commonly depression (37.1%) and neuroses (28.0%). Students re ported a high level of comfort in diagnosing and treating patients with a p sychiatric disorder The students routinely discussed these cases with their preceptors. Conclusions: By using a relatively simple computerized database, many curri cular issues can be identified For example, analysis of the database shows that the clerkship provides students with substantial practice in taking pa tient histories and performing initial patient examinations in patients pre senting with a psychiatric problem. However students infrequently provided patient education and counseling to patients with psychiatric disorders. Sp ecific psychiatric diagnoses reflecting limited experience and lower levels of perceived competence include attention deficit disorder and senile and presenile organic psychotic disorders. Copyright (C) 2001 by Lawrence Erlba um Associates, Inc.