Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-t27h7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-23T01:48:51.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Teaching provision for old age psychiatry in medical schools in the UK and Ireland: a survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Sophia Bennett ,
Poppy Ilderton ,
John T. O'Brien ,
John-Paul Taylor  and
Andrew Teodorczuk
Sophia Bennett*
Affiliation:
Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
Poppy Ilderton
Affiliation:
Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
John T. O'Brien
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
John-Paul Taylor
Affiliation:
Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
Andrew Teodorczuk
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Queensland, Australia
*
[email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Aims and method

This work builds on a survey first done in 1999 to understand how old age psychiatry teaching is embedded in undergraduate medical schools in the UK and Ireland and the influence of academic old age psychiatrists on teaching processes. We invited deans of 31 medical schools in the UK and Ireland in 2015 to complete an online survey to reassess the situation 16 years later.

Results

Response rate was 74%. As found in the original survey, there was variation across medical schools in how old age psychiatry is taught. Half of schools stated there was not enough space in the curriculum dedicated to old age psychiatry, and not all medical school curricula offered a clinical attachment. Medical schools that involved academic old age psychiatrists in teaching (59%) showed a greater diversity of teaching methods.

Clinical implications

There is a need to recognise the importance of old age psychiatry teaching, with the consensus of opinion continuing to be that more curriculum space needs to be given to old age psychiatry. To achieve this we advocate increasing the number of old age psychiatrists with teaching roles, as relying on academics to teach and lead on curriculum development is challenging given their greater research pressures.

Type
Education & Training
Information
BJPsych Bulletin , Volume 41 , Issue 5 , October 2017 , pp. 287 - 293
Check for updates
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an open-access article published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 The Authors

Footnotes

∗

Joint senior authors.

Declaration of interest

None.

References

1 General Medical Council. Tomorrow's Doctors: Outcomes and Standards for Undergraduate Medical Education. GMC, 2009.Google Scholar
2 Royal College of Psychiatrists. Undergraduate Psychiatry Curriculum. RCPsych, 2011.Google Scholar
3 Department of Health. NHS Outcomes Framework 2015 to 2016. Department of Health, 2014.Google Scholar
4 Department of Health. Living Well with Dementia: A National Dementia Strategy: Implementation Plan. Department of Health, 2009.Google Scholar
5 Centre for Workforce Intelligence. In-depth Review of the Psychiatrist Workforce. CWI, 2014.Google Scholar
6 Royal College of Psychiatrists. Recruitment Strategy 2011-2016. RCPsych, 2012.Google Scholar
7 Lindesay, J, Warner, J, Katona, C, Prettyman, R. A survey of academic provision for old age psychiatry in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Psychiatr Bull 2002; 26: 92–5.Google Scholar
8 Gordon, AL, Blundell, AG, Gladman, JRF, Masud, T. Are we teaching our students what they need to know about ageing? Results from the UK National Survey of Undergraduate Teaching in Ageing and Geriatric Medicine. Age Ageing 2010; 39: 385–8.Google Scholar
9 Gordon, AL, Blundell, A, Dhesi, JK, Forrester-Paton, C, Forrester-Paton, J, Mitchell, HK, et al. UK medical teaching about ageing is improving but there is still work to be done: the Second National Survey of Undergraduate Teaching in Ageing and Geriatric Medicine. Age Ageing 2013: 29: 207.Google Scholar
10 Tullo, ES, Gordon, AL. Teaching and learning about dementia in UK medical schools: a national survey. BMC Geriatr 2013; 13: 29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11 Teodorczuk, A, Mukaetova-Ladinska, E, Corbett, S, Welfare, M. Learning about the patient: an interprofessional dementia and delirium education programme. Clin Teach 2014; 7: 497–502.Google Scholar
12 Miller, GE. The assessment of clinical skills/competence/performance. Acad Med 1990; 65: s63–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13 Watmough, S, Taylor, D, Ryland, I. Using questionnaires to determine whether medical graduates' career choice is determined by undergraduate or postgraduate experiences. Med Teach 2007; 29: 830–2.Google Scholar
14 Goldacre, MJ, Turner, G, Lambert, TW. Variation by medical school in career choices of UK graduates of 1999 and 2000. Med Educ 2004; 38: 249–58.Google Scholar
15 Goldacre, MJ, Turner, G, Fazel, S, Lambert, T. Career choices for psychiatry: national surveys of graduates of 1974-2000 from UK medical schools. Br J Psychiatry 2005; 186: 158–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
16 Ek, EW, Ek, ET, Mackay, SD. Undergraduate experience of surgical teaching and its influence and its influence on career choice. ANZ J Surg 2005; 75: 713–8.Google Scholar
17 Watts, R, Worley, P, Marley, J. Undergraduate education in anaesthesia: the influence of role models on skills learnt and career choice. Anaesthesia Intensive Care 1998; 26: 201–3.Google Scholar
18 Yap, C, Rosen, S, Sinclair, AM, Pearce, I. What undergraduate factors influence medical students when making their choice of post graduate career? Br J Med Surg Urology 2012; 5: 11–5.Google Scholar
19 Singh, SP, Baxter, H, Standen, P, Duggan, C. Changing the attitudes of tomorrow's doctors' towards mental illness and psychiatry: a comparison of two teaching methods. Med Educ 1998; 32: 115–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20 McParland, M, Noble, LM, Livingston, G. The effectiveness of problem-based learning compared to traditional teaching in undergraduate psychiatry. Med Educ 2004; 38: 859–67.Google Scholar
21 Hughes, NJ, Soiza, RL, Chua, M, Hoyle, GE, MacDonald, A, Primrose, WR, et al. Medical student attitudes toward older people and willingness to consider a career in geriatric medicine. J Am Geriatr Soc 2008; 56: 334–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22 Fitzgerald, JT, Wray, LA, Halter, JB, Williams, BC, Supiano, MA. Relating medical students' knowledge, attitudes, and experience to an interest in geriatric medicine. Gerontologist 2003; 43: 849–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23 Deary, IJ, Smith, R, Mitchell, C, MacLennan, WJ. Geriatric medicine: does teaching alter medical students' attitudes to elderly people? Med Edu 1993; 27: 286–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24 Lindberg, MC, Sullivan, GM. Effects of an inpatient geriatrics rotation on internal medicine residents' knowledge and attitudes. J Gen Intern Med 1996; 11: 397–400.Google Scholar
25 Lieff, SJ, Tolomiczenko, GS, Dunn, LB. Effect of training and other influences on the development of career interest in geriatric psychiatry. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2003; 11: 300–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
26 Rej, S, Laliberté, V, Rapoport, MJ, Seitz, D, Andrew, M, Davidson, M. What makes residents interested in geriatric psychiatry? A pan-Canadian online survey of psychiatry residents. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2014; 23: 735–43.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.