Undergraduate Training in Psychiatry: Observational Perspective of Medical Officers Working at Primary Health-care Settings

Primary care physicians are not adequately trained to tackle mental health problems. The study aimed to evaluate undergraduate training in Psychiatry: An observational perspective of medical officers. It was a cross-sectional study conducted in North India. Participants were assessed on a self-designed questionnaire developed by the Indian psychiatric society to assess various aspects of undergraduate training. Other questionnaires measured residents’ satisfaction with the quality of training programs and perceived need for psychiatric training in undergraduate courses. The participant’s mean age was 32.4 years; majorities were male medical officers. About one-tenth reported that there were no separate psychiatry departments and designated psychiatry consultants in their college. Approximately 50% reported: No regular supervision by any psychiatric faculty or having psychiatric disorders discussions in clinical rounds. More than half (50.9%) were not confident enough to identify common signs and symptoms of psychiatric problems. From one-third to half of the participants were unsatisfied with various aspects of the training program, like teaching skills, diagnostic interviews, clinical posting, etc. Majority (77.3%–83.7%) agreed that there is a need to improve the psychiatry training program; during the clinic rounds, psychiatric diagnosis should be discussed, and psychiatry should be a separate subject in under-graduation. Primary health-care physicians were unsatisfied with an undergraduate psychiatry training program. Hence, psychiatry should be an independent subject during the undergraduate training program, with dedicated theoretical and clinical hours for psychiatry training and a separate paper for evaluation.