ATTITUDE TOWARDS PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHIATRISTS AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS IN TERTIARY HEALTH CARE HOSPITAL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11603/ijmmr.2413-6077.2022.1.13090Keywords:
attitude, undergraduate medical students, psychiatry, IndiaAbstract
Background. Psychiatry is a medical subject; many medical students ignore its importance in medicine. Regarding mental illness, many medical professionals and students are less aware as mental illness is very important in affecting the quality of care the patient receives and in choosing psychiatry as a career. This study specializes in psychiatry based on many factors, however undergraduate students’ attitude towards career choice is the most important.
Objective. This study aims to explore attitude towards psychiatry subject among undergraduate medical students.
Methods. This is a Descriptive cross-sectional study done at Vikhe Patil Medical College, Ahmednagar. The total of 295 volunteer students from all phases of MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) were enrolled by purposive sampling, a 30-item self-administered questionnaire, ATP-30 (Attitude towards Psychiatry) was used to measure the attitude of medical students. Data collected was analysed using SPSS version 24. The results were reported as percentage and frequencies.
Results. In the study, 47.4% of the respondents were males and 52.6% were females. Out of total study participants 52.3% of our study respondents strongly agreed that psychiatry was a respected branch of medicine; 56.7% strongly agreed that psychiatry should be an important part of medical curriculum; 19.4% of study respondents considered it in the list of the career choice while the majority did not think that it should be in their career list options.
Conclusions. In the study, the students from the later phases of MBBS showed positive attitude than that of the initial phases. Many students found it as respected subject and essential field of medicine for their choice of profession. However, shortcoming knowledge and awareness was observed in the responses pertaining to present available treatment and recent trends in the field.
References
WHO. Investing in mental health. 2003
Geneva: WHO; 2003. WHO. Investing in Mental Health Magnitude and burden of mental disorders; p. 8.
Jiloha RC. Image of psychiatry among medical community. Indian J Psychiatry. 1989;31:285-7.
Minhas FA, Mubbasher MH. Attitude of medical students towards psychiatry in Pakistan. J Coll Physicians Surg Pak. 2003;10:69-72.
Pradhan SN, Sharma SC, Malla DP, et al. A study of help seeking behavior of psychiatric patients. Journal of Kathmandu Medical College. 2014 May 31;2(1):21-4.
https://doi.org/10.3126/jkmc.v2i1.10538
Malhi GS, Parker GB, Parker K, Carr VJ, Kirkby KC, Yellowlees P, et al. Attitudes toward psychiatry among students entering medical school. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2003;107:424-9.
https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0447.2003. 00050.x
Chawla JM, Balhara YP, Sagar R, Shivaprakash Undergraduate medical students’ attitude toward psychiatry: a cross-sectional study. Indian J Psychiatry. 2012;54:37-40.
https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.94643
Gulati P, Das S, Chavan BS. Impact of psychiatry training on attitude of medical students toward mental illness and psychiatry. Indian J Psychiatry. 2014;56:271-7.
https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.140640
Rajagopalan M, Kuruvilla K. Medical students’ attitudes towards psychiatry: effect of a two week posting. Indian J Psychiatry. 1994;36:177-82.
Burra P, Kalin R, Leichner P, Waldron J, Handforth J, Jarrett F, et al. The ATP 30-a scale for measuring medical student’ attitudes to psychiatry. Medical Education. 1982;16(1):31-38. 2015/09/25/19:00:10.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.1982.tb01216.x
Feifel D, Moutier CY, Swerdlow N R. Attitudes toward psychiatry as a prospective career among students entering medical school. Am J Psychiatry. 2014;9:1397-1402.
Lingeswaran A. Psychiatric curriculum and its impact on the attitude of Indian undergraduate medical students and interns. Indian J Psychol Med. 2010;32:119-27.
https://doi.org/10.4103/0253-7176.78509
Samuel-Lajeunesse B, Ichou P: French medical students’ opinion of psychiatry. Am J Psychiatry 1985;142:1462-146612.
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.142.12.1462
Yellowlees P, Vizard T, Eden J: Australian medical students’ attitudes towards specialities and specialists. Med J Aust1990; 152:587-92.
https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1990.tb125389.x
Aruna G, Mittal S, Yadiyal MB, Acharya C, Acharya S, Uppulari C. Perception, knowledge, and attitude toward mental disorders and psychiatry among medical undergraduates in Karnataka: A cross-sectional study. Indian journal of psychiatry. 2016 Jan;58(1):70.
https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.174381
Desai ND, Chavda PD. Attitudes of undergraduate medical students toward mental illnesses and psychiatry. Journal of education and health promotion. 2018;7.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 International Journal of Medicine and Medical Research
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who sent their manuscript to International Journal of Medicine and Medical Research agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY-NC that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
