Medical student interest groups in
psychiatry are commonplace in the US, where they even have regional
networks, are affiliated with the American Psychiatric Association,
and have an annual meeting. In the UK, it is a different story
altogether. The only medical student interest group in psychiatry
is at King’s College London. Yet, when we ran the society between
2006-8 it grew to become the largest student society at the
university. This clearly dispels the myth that medical students are
not interested in psychiatry. If anything, they are crying out for
more information on one of the most fascinating medical
specialties, and interested in exploring the current controversies
in the field.
Setting up a psychiatry society at
your medical school is an excellent way to meet other students who
are similarly interested in psychiatry, and support each other in
developing that interest. It is also a fantastic way of raising the
profile of mental health issues amongst all student health
professionals. Here we outline how you can set up a psychiatry
society at your medical school and the kind of events you can
organise.
- Contact the director of
undergraduate psychiatry or co-ordinator of the psychiatry rotation
at your medical school. They will no doubt be pleased to
help you with this matter, and may be able to put you in touch with
other like-minded students. There may be some surplus funding
for psychiatry which could be used to pay for events and can inform
you of this.
- Send out an email to the medical
students to find out if there are any other interested medical
students who would be willing to help you set up the society
and work in different capacities. You can meet up with each other
and discuss what you would like to get out of the society and where
your interests in this diverse field lies.
- Contact the Chair of Psychiatry at
your medical school and tell them about your plans. Ask them to be
patron of the society. They can then give a talk to the
society once established, and will have contacts with other
potential speakers. If any medical students are interested in
getting involved in psychiatric research as a special study module
(SSM) or during their summer holiday, the Professor of Psychiatry
will be best placed to inform you about these
opportunities. They may have contacts overseas if students want to
do an elective in psychiatry abroad. Academics tend to apply
for more research grant money than is necessary and may be willing
to use this additional money to fund your society.
- Your Students’ Union may be
interested in ratifying the society. This usually requires a
proposal of the aims and objectives of the society, a
committee in place, and sufficient signatories of individuals who
will join. One problem may be that some students’ unions are not
keen on supporting medically-oriented interest groups,
whereas others expect students to pay a membership fee to join. As
far as possible membership should be free to attract more
students. The Medical Protection Society (MPS) and other
organisations may be able to sponsor your events.
- If you are on or have completed your psychiatry attachment you
will hopefully have met an enthusiastic and charismatic
psychiatrist. Get in contact with them and ask for their
support. They will be another person to advise you on potential
speakers, as well as contacts for careers in different
psychiatric subspecialties, or to arrange clinical shadowing
opportunities.
- When you have support and
financial backing you can start to think more about events to
organise.
Students always like exam revision
sessions so you could think about arranging a psychiatry revision
session for OSCEs. Such sessions are usually very popular and
an opportunity to build students’ confidence with their psychiatric
skills, as well as publicise the other activities of the
society.
Another popular event may be a
psychiatric subspecialties careers evening. There are numerous
specialties within psychiatry such as psychotherapy, child and
adolescent, liaison, old age, and forensic. Buy lots of wine and
nibbles and a speed-dating format where students have 5
minutes with each student works well.
Pre-clinical medical students tend
not to have much exposure to patients and will jump at the
opportunity for some clinical shadowing. Through your contacts
you can arrange for them to shadow a registrar or consultant for
the day.
When you think about events, ensure
they are on topics which will be of interest to students. It is
particularly useful to cover topics that are not covered in
the curriculum – for example gender identity disorder, mental
illness in different cultures, war and psychiatry, mentally
ill doctors, or you could get a psychiatrist to talk about a recent
media story. Remember that psychiatrists are not the
only people who can talk about mental illness: there are many
psychologists, philosophers, sociologists, or even professors of
English or History who can give a different perspective. Most
crucially of all there are also patients: people who have
experienced serious mental distress may be best placed to give
fascinating talks on their personal journey. Your consultant
advisors or mental health charities such as Rethink or the
Manic Depression Fellowship may be able to point you in the right
direction.
Film screenings of popular movies
featuring psychiatrists, psychiatry or mental illness are a good
way of attracting an audience. This can be followed by a
discussion about the film and how mentally ill characters or
psychiatrists were portrayed.
Were there many students who did an
elective in psychiatry at your medical school? If so, invite them
to talk about their experience. They can not only provide details
of how students go about arranging such experiences, but could also
talk about how the practice of psychiatry differs
internationally and in different health care systems.
On a final note, remember that medical students love freebies! So,
where possible, buy some snacks, refreshments and wine.
Also the Royal College of Psychiatrists may be able to provide
you with free pens, pencils, bookmarks, mugs etc which you can give
out.
The KCL Psychiatry Society will be
able to assist you in setting up your psychiatry student interest
group as will the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Please visit http://www.kclpsychiatrysociety.org.uk/
You can email georgina.fozard@kcl.ac.uk
for more details
Vivek Datta
Tom Pollak
Michael Eyre
KCL Psychiatry Society
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Page last updated on 26th January
2009 by E Baker-Glenn