Background: The World Health Organization has identified a chronic shortage of psychiatrists worldwide whereas the demand for mental health services is on the rise. Indeed mental health problems are projected to be a leading cause of morbidity by 2020 according to the Global Burden of Disease study. Bhugra et al, under the auspices of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the World Psychiatry Association, spearheaded an international study across 22 countries and identified myriad factors that can influence career choices at pre-medical school, medical school and postgraduate levels. The enthusiasm and passion of mental health educators and the quality of psychiatry placements were identified as factors that can attract medical and students and graduates to a career in psychiatry. The Future Excellence International Medical Summer School (FEIMSS) is a 5-day event for medical students held yearly in Manchester, UK. FEIMSS is the largest event of its kind in the world; the 2013 cohort was comprised of 244 students from 40 countries representing 80 universities.
Aims: To improve the image of psychiatrists and the perception of psychiatry in general with 2 brief contact-based lectures from a consultant and an early-career psychiatrist. The lectures incorporated references to the humanities (literature, poetry, history, film, drama and art).
Methods: A mixed-methods study was conducted. Paper evaluation forms were hand-distributed to participants who attended the psychiatry talks. Items to constructs relevant to the talks were on a Likert-type scale. Participants were given the choice of anonymity. There was space for free-text comments which were subjected to thematic analyses.
Results: 25/25 of the participants responded (response rate 100%). The heterogeneous sample was comprised of participants representing 11 countries from Japan to Kosovo. The written feedback was exceptionally positive. For the, 'The psychiatry talks were interesting' and, 'Attending FEIMMS improved my understanding and respect for other cultures' constructs, 23/25 (92%) of respondents agreed or strongly agreed.
Discussion: Notwithstanding the limitations of our evaluation--which to our knowledge is the first of its kind on such an ethnically eclectic sample--our results suggest that a brief contact-based intervention incorporating the humanities may positively influence the perceptions of psychiatry and psychiatrists that medical students from diverse cultural backgrounds have. We contend that FEIMSS provides a platform to recruit medical students into psychiatry from all over the world and enables them to develop cultural competency.