Medical Student Education in Psychiatry

MISSION 

The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine strives to continually clarify and expand on the mission of its original founders. The most current version of the School of Medicine's educational mission and objectives can be accessed at the URL below: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/som/mission.html

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is enthusiastically committed to the education and training of medical students. Starting in their first year, students at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine are offered a variety of opportunities to learn more about the field of psychiatry and psychiatric patients.

REQUIRED COURSE WORK

Introduction to Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences

Course Director: Dean F. MacKinnon, M.D.

This course reviews the four perspectives of psychiatry: disease, dimensions, behaviors and life story. Clinical features of common psychiatric disorders and methods of psychiatric examination are taught in small group interviews with patients. Principles of reasoning about psychological and behavioral phenomena and their relationship to the basic sciences, particularly behavioral science, are taught in lecture and small group tutorials.

Psychiatry Clerkship

Course Director: Susan Lehmann, M.D.

The Psychiatry Clerkship is one part of a 9-week quarter integrating Psychiatry (4 weeks), Neurology (4 weeks) and Ophthalmology (4 days). The clerkship consists of a 4-week inpatient experience and a series of lectures and seminars. Students serve as clerks in the Meyer Building, on General Hospital Psychiatry or at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Students also evaluate patients in specialty outpatient settings. They attend departmental rounds, a series of weekly lectures and case conferences, and see acute mental illness while working in the Emergency Room. Course goals can be summarized as "making psychiatry real" for students through clinical exposure and practical, care-centered teaching.

ELECTIVE OPPORTUNITIES

Curricular Consultant: Susan Lehmann, M.D.

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences wants to encourage students to take electives in Psychiatry. These can be done within the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, under the supervision of Hopkins faculty, affiliated institutions in the Baltimore area, or under the sponsorship of the department at other medical schools in the United States or abroad. In addition to training programs in research and clinical psychiatry, the Department offers elective seminars and independent study projects.

We try to maintain flexibility in our elective programs, and to attempt as much as possible to design programs that meet the needs of the individual student. The coordinator of electives, Dr. Lehmann, is available to discuss specific interests or goals. A description of some of the available elective rotations can be found online in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Electives Handbook. Many other opportunities can be developed through direct collaboration of individual students and individual faculty members.

VISITING STUDENTS

Students enrolled in other medical schools who wish to participate in a clinical clerkship in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences are advised that the School of Medicine reserves the right to strictly evaluate the pre-clinical and clinical education provided by the applicant's own school. As a general rule, clerkships are limited to students in LCME-approved schools. Visiting students are also accepted for research opportunities. Enrollment of visiting students is usually limited to one 9-week period per academic year.

Click here for more information about the School of Medicine Policies Concerning Visiting Medical Students.

More information can be obtained from Kelly Weggel in Meyer 4-119 (phone 410-955-2343) and the Office of the Registrar (phone 410-955-3080).