A Survey of Psychiatry Course Offerings for Fourth-Year Medical Students
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IN BRIEF REPORT
A Survey of Psychiatry Course Offerings for Fourth-Year Medical Students Aline B. Cenoz-Donati 1
&
Jennifer C. McKinley 2 & Jason E. Schillerstrom 1
Received: 16 April 2020 / Accepted: 11 August 2020 # Academic Psychiatry 2020
Abstract Objective Fourth-year course offerings seem to vary widely among psychiatry departments with some offering a wide selection while others offer little or unspecified opportunity. The purpose of this study was to learn the distribution and diversity of fourthyear medical school psychiatry courses and identify unique course offerings that may inspire other departments. Methods The authors compiled a list of US allopathic medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) using the LCME website. They accessed each school’s website catalog and recorded all psychiatry electives available to fourth-year students listed in the catalog or the Visiting Student Application Service® (VSAS®) database. The authors calculated median published course offerings per department and categorized each course according to learning opportunity. Results The authors identified 142 fully accredited allopathic medical schools of which n = 126 listed fourth-year medical student courses on their website or through VSAS. The median number of fourth-year psychiatry course offerings per school was 6 (range, 1–22). The most frequently offered courses were inpatient psychiatry (n = 105 schools), child and adolescent psychiatry (n = 95), and consultation psychiatry (n = 84). The authors also identified unique enrichment courses in media, women’s health, ethics, research, and cultural psychiatry. Conclusions The fourth-year curriculum varies widely among institutions. Hypotheses to be tested are if prioritizing robust fourth-year rotations include improved resident readiness, improved retention of home students into the training program, improved recruitment of visiting students, increased faculty scholarly activity and career development, and improved recruitment into the subspecialties. Keywords Medical student education . Senior medical students . Electives The medical school clerkship rotations expose third-year students to a variety of core specialties piquing long-term career interest. However, the fourth-year experience provides the opportunity to confirm career choice, assume more resident-like responsibility, and explore subspecialties or novel topics of interest. Regarding career planning, it is our impression that the third-year experience serves to rule in or out suitable specialty choices, while fourth-year rotations confirm and excite aspirations. It seems reasonable to suggest that robust fourthyear courses can attract students to the field and perhaps attract students to specific residency programs [1, 2]. However, it is also our impression that fourth-year course offerings vary
* Aline B. Cenoz-Donati [email protected] 1
UT Health San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
2
South Texas Veterans’ Healthcare System, San Antonio, TX, USA
widely across psy
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