title: Teaching undergraduate psychiatry in primary care: the impact on student learning and attitudes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the impact of undergraduate psychiatry placements in primary care settings on students' learning and attitudes to mental illness.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaire survey and qualitative in-depth interviews.
  
  
  METHODS
  A primary care-based psychiatry undergraduate teaching programme at Royal Free and University College Medical School, London.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 145/183 (79.2%) students attending the primary care-based programme over 2 academic years completed a questionnaire survey. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 students, 12 general practitioner (GP) tutors and 20 patients participating in the course.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the questionnaire survey, 121/144 (84.0%) students valued the primary care-based teaching highly. In total, 87/139 (62.6%) students felt their attitudes to mental illness had changed as a result of the course. In-depth interviews demonstrated 4 key benefits of the teaching programme: increasing breadth of experience, understanding the patients' experience, learning about mental illness from a GP's perspective and changing students' attitudes towards mental illness. The students' attitudinal shift comprised 2 main dimensions; 'normalisation' of mental illness and increased empathy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Learning psychiatry in primary care settings offers students a broader experience of a range of patients than in hospital settings and encourages a 'person-centred' approach, which in turn can have a positive impact on their attitudes to mental illness, reducing stereotyping and increasing empathy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, Royal Free and University College Medical School, Royal Free Campus, Rowland Hill Street, London NW3 2PF, UK. k.walters@pcps.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Walters
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Raven
authors.forename: Joe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Humphrey
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buszewicz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000592:standards*