Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Perceptions and Career Preference: Participation in a National Medical Student Conference Improves Outcomes.
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Kishore, A., Sun, K., Guth, S., Kolevzon, A., Martin, A.
2019
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Since 2002, the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation (KTGF) has supported a network of medical schools across the country with the explicit aim of enhancing interest in, and eventual recruitment into the field of child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP). An active component of the KTGF network has been its annual National Medical Student Conference (NMSC).METHOD: The Thirteenth Annual NMSC, supported by the KTGF, was held at Stanford University on February 8 and 9, 2019. We designed a 17-item survey with five underlying themes (balance, finances, patients, systems, and stigma), intended to quantify students' perceptions of the field of CAP. We also rated students' prospective career choices. Surveys were electronically collected at baseline, after the NMSC, and 90 days later.RESULTS: Our baseline sample consisted of 79 students (57% women) from 14 medical schools. We found improvements over time in overall perceptions of child psychiatry (F2,206=7.5, p<0.000), and in four out of five domain scores (F2,206 ≥3.6, p≤0.03). Prospective career preferences increased over time for CAP (F2,206=3.9, p=0.02), although the effect was time-limited and did not persist after 90 days. We found no change in preference for psychiatry or pediatrics over time.CONCLUSION: An intensive, 2-day conference entirely dedicated to CAP content had salutary effects among medical students in improving their perceptions about the field, and in their reported likelihood of pursuing CAP after graduation.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jaac.2019.07.949
View details for PubMedID 31585159
