The teaching of psychiatry, in the UK at least, is facing more recognition, with the establishment of the Undergraduate Education Leads Forum at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the introduction of chairs in psychiatry and education at several medical schools. Robust teaching throughout undergraduate and postgraduate training does not only benefit patients, but acts as a splint for the fractured identity of the specialty, and is also one of the most obvious ways to tackle recruitment crisis.
This book is an ambitious international project, with 19 chapters written by 27 authors from the English Midlands to Morocco. As might be expected, the quality of the contributions is variable. Some are lucid, with case studies and summary learning points, as in chapter 2 on student selection and chapter 4 on the development of the undergraduate core curriculum in the UK. Some are enthusiastic and engaging, for example chapter 11, an introduction to research for trainees. Other chapters, such as chapter 16 on the use of technology and chapter 17 on assessment, are succinct and useful for the academic clinician.
Yet other chapters are less successful. Chapter 3, on the ethical aspects of teaching psychiatry, is short of definitions and references and contains too many glib generalities. Chapter 15 describes in considerable detail a local development of a patient involvement programme which probably has limited applicability. I would have liked to have seen more specific mention of teaching the mental state exam in chapter 8 on interviewing skills, and more reference to classic texts in chapter 9 on teaching psychotherapy rather than citations to the author’s own work.
The book ends with a diligent and systematic chapter on the importance of the psychiatrist educator, which could have been enhanced by introducing the readership to the academic portfolio and maybe by mentioning the importance of educational research in our subject.
Teaching Psychiatry could have benefited from more attentive editorial control and an emphasis on greater depth rather than diversity. Nevertheless, it is a progressive and valuable work. It will be rewarding reading for any psychiatrist interested in education and required reading for medical school psychiatry leads. It reminds us that ours is a unique specialty, rooted, as the authors of chapter 7 point out, in the ‘scientific, intellectual and humanistic traditions’. International educational ventures of this kind are to be celebrated.
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