Volume : 2, Issue : 9, September - 2013

Attitudes and Myths of Undergraduate Medical Students on Taking Up Psychiatry as A Post Graduate Specialty � A Survey

Minjal Shah, Zarana Shah, Toral Bhatt, Avinash Desousa, Nilesh Shah

Abstract :

A survey in 200 medical students was carried out to assess the attitudes and myths of undergraduate medical students on taking up psychiatry as a post graduate specialty. The data was collected on a specially prepared self reporting voluntary and anonymous questionnaire and was statistically analyzed. All 200 medical students answered the entire questionnaire. 79.5% of medical graduates strongly agreed that psychiatric illnesses do need attention. Approximately 65% of the participants did not consider the psychiatrist equivalent to other doctors and believed that their job was quite challenging. 52% were open to the idea of choosing psychiatry as a career. 85% considered psychiatry a very respectable anch of medicine while 82% regarded it as a very scientific discipline. It was also heartening to note that 72% felt that psychiatric training increases their understanding of medical and surgical patients while 75% considered their undergraduate training valuable. Further studies in different medical college settings are needed to corroborate and generalize these findings.