title: Incorporating active learning into a psychiatry clerkship: does it make a difference?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Medical students' satisfaction with the psychiatry clerkship, sense of preparedness for an institutional Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE), expressed likelihood of choosing psychiatry as a specialty, and National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) psychiatry shelf-examination scores were compared after a curriculum based on Active Learning (AL) techniques was introduced.
  
  
  METHODS
  In consecutive academic years, two groups of students were compared after completing a 1-month psychiatry clerkship. The first group (N=108) received traditional lectures, and the second (N=102) was taught via AL. Participants were surveyed regarding satisfaction, sense of preparedness for an institutional OSCE, and expressed likelihood of choosing psychiatry as a specialty. NBME psychiatry shelf-examination scores were analyzed; independent-samples t-tests were used to evaluate the data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Satisfaction and sense of preparedness for the institutional OSCE increased with AL techniques. NBME scores were not significantly different between groups. Professed likelihood of choosing psychiatry as a specialty did not increase with the interventional curriculum.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We confirmed findings from previous studies that student satisfaction improves with active learning (AL). Sense of preparedness for the OSCE examination improved with AL, as well. NBME psychiatry exam scores and professed interest in psychiatry as a specialty were not different from those taught in a traditional format.
authors: Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA. mmorreale@med.wayne.edu
authors: Mary
authors: M
authors: Morreale
authors: Cynthia
authors: C
authors: Arfken
authors: Patrick
authors: P
authors: Bridge
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Balon
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000379:methods*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires