Aim: The aim of this study was to discover methods of preparing medical students for contacts with mentally ill people and to create educational procedures considering the exceptionality of the course of psychiatry.
Methods: The examined group consisted of IVth, Vth, VIth-year students of the Medical University in Gdańsk. We have analysed a group of 121 students. To perform our study we have created a questionnaire with 22 questions (enclosed).
Conclusions: We have founds as follows: 1. Most of the students were at first interested in the subject; 2. Almost all of the students have actively participated in conversation with the patients; 3. Many of the students were afraid of relations with the patients; 4. The most difficult cases for the students were schizophrenic psychoses and affective diseases; 5. In the students' opinion there should be less than 4-6 students in a group; 6. In the students' opinion the time spent on conversation with one patient was too short.