Impact of duration of psychiatry rotation on medical interns’ attitude towards psychiatry

Background: Medical Council of India allowed the interns to take up an extra 15 days of elective posting in psychiatry along with the mandatory posting of 15 days. The study was planned to assess the effect of the additional period of psychiatry internship on the attitude of interns towards psychiatry. Material and methods: The consenting interns were given a semi structured proforma enquiring about their age and gender and were asked to fill up Attitude Towards Psychiatry (ATP) scale. The assessment was done at the beginning and then after 15 days of mandatory posting. Those participants who were willing to do an additional 15 days of elective posting in psychiatry were assessed again on the 30th day of the training. Results: Mean age of the participating interns (n=47) was 25.44±1.52 and the male female ratio was 0.8. Twenty six interns did only the 15 days mandatory psychiatry internship posting (Group 1) and the remaining 21 interns took up the additional elective 15 days posting (Group 2). At the end of the 15 days posting, Mean ATP score of the group 1 increased from 88.34±6.07 to 88.46±6.19 (p=0.80) whereas the same increased from 88.04±7.06 to 88.19±7.65 (p=0.7) in the group 2 and further increased to 91.09±8.3 at the end of the additional 15 days of elective posting (p<0.05). Conclusion: A thirty days exposure of psychiatry during internship had more favourable impact on the attitude of interns towards psychiatry.