We explored student perceptions of neurology and psychiatry clerkship integration, including clinical education and competency evaluation.

There has been a call to improve integration of neurology and psychiatry in undergraduate medical education in order to develop physicians who can better address the multidimensional manifestations of nervous system disorders and achieve greater depths of clinical reasoning. There are no reports in the literature describing student perceptions of the integration of neurology and psychiatry clinical education and competency evaluation. According to adult learning theory, it is essential for a more integrated curriculum to be perceived as relevant and timely by students. Learning contexts play an important role in this perception because, according to socio-cultural perspectives, learning occurs not as an individual experience but as a social process.

Via a constructivist grounded theory approach, this qualitative study used a purposive sampling strategy of five focus group sessions with 27 medical students who completed both their psychiatry and neurology clerkships. Investigator triangulation was used with iterative interpretation comparisons, and themes were identified using constant comparative analysis.

Three major themes arose: 1) combining the clerkships is not favorable as students need sufficient time to delve deeper in each discipline to make links for deeper learning; 2) students do not observe an integrated clinical approach by psychiatry and neurology faculty; 3) value of making links between neurology and psychiatry for effective patient care.

Students emphasize the importance of making stronger links between the two disciplines for their learning and to improve patient care; however, a significant barrier is that they do not observe this clinical approach in the workplace. Students perceive that improved integration of neurology and psychiatry clerkships should occur via increased understanding of the complementary field by trainees and faculty in each discipline.