title: Senior medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry as a career choice before and after an undergraduate psychiatry internship in Iran.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The study aimed to assess 1) the attitudes of medical students in the sixth and seventh years (known as interns in Iran) toward psychiatry as a career choice, and 2) the degree of attractiveness of psychiatry as a career choice, with regard to various defined aspects, before and after an undergraduate psychiatry internship (similar to the medical school psychiatry rotation in the United States, but mandatory in Iran) in three major medical schools in Tehran, the capital of Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixth- and seventh-year medical students (locally called interns, N=347) at Tehran, Shahid Beheshti, and Iran Universities of Medical Sciences were consecutively invited to complete anonymous self-report questionnaires designed to assess their perceptions of careers in psychiatry before and after internship in psychiatry wards. Also, students evaluated psychiatry in terms of the factors that reflected the degree of attractiveness of this specialty.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Positive responses toward choosing psychiatry as a career were seen in 18.8% before and 20.0% after psychiatry rotation. No significant differences were observed in the positive responses before and after psychiatry internship. The students' opinions changed to a more attractive degree in terms of only 3 out of the 13 defined aspects. There was also no significant difference in the total score on attractiveness of psychiatry before and after the psychiatry internship.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study indicated that undergraduate psychiatry internship might not induce more students to consider psychiatry as a possible career. The present pattern of psychiatry education in Iran seems not to positively affect most aspects of medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry.
authors: Dept. of Psychiatry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran, Iran. aminihom@tums.ac.ir
authors: Homayoun
authors: H
authors: Amini
authors: Yasaman
authors: Y
authors: Moghaddam
authors: Ali-Akbar
authors: AA
authors: Nejatisafa
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Esmaeili
authors: Hosein
authors: H
authors: Kaviani
authors: Saeed
authors: S
authors: Shoar
authors: Amir
authors: A
authors: Shabani
authors: Mehdi
authors: M
authors: Samimi-Ardestani
authors: Amir Abbas Keshavarz
authors: AA
authors: Akhlaghi
authors: Alireza
authors: A
authors: Noroozi
authors: Mostafa
authors: M
authors: Mafi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002321:Career Choice; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires