A survey of the teaching and assessment of undergraduate psychiatry in the medical schools of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
BACKGROUND
Individual medical schools currently decide on the content and delivery of their undergraduate psychiatry curriculum, so there is probably significant variation in the students' experience of the speciality during the medical course and in the extent to which they develop the appropriate skills and knowledge base.


OBJECTIVE
To ascertain how the teaching of undergraduate psychiatry differs across UK and Irish medical schools.


METHODS
The educational lead for psychiatry at each medical school in the United Kingdom and Ireland completed a questionnaire providing factual information on the teaching structure, contents and assessment methods in their current psychiatry curriculum.


RESULTS
Some aspects of the curriculum were consistent across the medical schools with other areas showing great variability. The course content was broadly similar but the assessment, length of experience and course structure differed.


CONCLUSIONS
There are significant differences in how psychiatry is taught to undergraduate students in the United Kingdom and Ireland and although all the curricula are evaluated by the General Medical Council, further study is required to see if this has any effect on the levels of competency achieved.
Karim
Khalid
K
University of Leicester, Leicester, UK. kk55@le.ac.uk
Edwards
Ruth
R
Dogra
Nisha
N
Anderson
Ian
I
Davies
Teifion
T
Lindsay
James
J
Ring
Howard
H
Cavendish
Sue
S
D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003625:Data Collection; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D012577:Schools, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching; D006113:United Kingdom