Attitude of Medical Students in Boushehr University of Medical Sciences towards Psychiatry as A Course and A Future Career

Document Type : Original Article (s)

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Medical Education Research Center, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

3 General Practitioner, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

4 Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Boushehr University of Medical Sciences, Boushehr, Iran

Abstract

Background: There is a dearth of literature in the Iranian context about medical students' attitude to­wards psychiatry and their desire to choose psychiatry as a career in future. Commonalities and differences in the attitude of male and female medical students' attitudes towards psychiatry and their interest in psychiatry were the theme of this study.Methods: In this cross-sectional survey, we screened the entire 220 medical students registered at Booshehr University of Medical Sciences, Iran, during the academic year of 2011-12. The 29-item attitude towards psychiatry scale (ATP-30) by Burra et al. was used for assessments. A Cronbach's alpha of 0.07 confirmed the reliability of the scale. About 67% of the students (n = 148), including 82 pre-clinical, 38 clinical, and 28 internship students, showed their cooperation by returning the completed questionnaires. We used SPSS16 to process the data by running descriptive and analytical tests including student-t test, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) along with Tukey's post hoc test, and linear regression.Findings: Female students at the pre-clinical and internship levels and male students at clinical level held more positive attitude toward psychiatry as compared to their counterparts at each level. Students at the pre-clinical level followed by those at clinical and internship levels showed more interest in persuading psychiatry as a career. Among all six sub-scales of ATP-30, "overall merits of psychiatry", "efficacy of psychiatry", "role defini­tion and functioning of psychiatrists" and "career and personal rewards" turn out as the significant predictors of students' interest in psychiatry, yielding an R square value of 0.32. Conclusion: Gender differences play a key role in formulating medical students' attitude towards psy­chiatry. However, they are subjected to a galaxy of social, familial, economic and situational considerations. Assessment of candidates' attitude towards psychiatry at the time of admission and preference for female candidates is imperative.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Isfahan Medical School
Volume 29, Issue 170 - Serial Number 170
November and December 2012
Pages 2672-2686

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History

  • Receive Date: 18 October 2011
  • Revise Date: 02 November 2024
  • Accept Date: 06 April 2022

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