Promoting psychiatry as a career option for Ghanaian medical students through a public-speaking competition.

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Authors

Agyapong, Vincent Israel Opoku
McLoughlin, Declan

Issue Date

2012-May-01

Type

Journal Article

Language

en

Keywords

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Journal Issue

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Abstract

Authors assessed the impact of a public-speaking competition on the level of interest in psychiatry of Ghanaian medical students.
An inter-medical school public-speaking competition was organized to promote psychiatry as a fulfilling career option for Ghanaian medical students. Feedback questionnaires were completed by the students and others in attendance at the event (N=122). The results were compiled and analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Of the 80 feedback forms received, 37 (46.2%) were from medical students; 2 (2.5%) from physicians; 19 (23.8%) from other health professionals, mainly nursing students; and 22 (27.5%) were from journalists. Of the medical students, 29 (78.4%) agreed that the competition had helped positively change their perception of psychiatry; 22 students (59.5%) agreed or strongly agreed that the interest of medical students in psychiatry would be stimulated by the competition; 10 students (27%) agreed or strongly agreed that they would consider psychiatry as a career option if the government were to offer attractive incentive packages for doctors to train in psychiatry.
An inter-medical school public speaking competition is an innovative way to encourage medical students in a developing country like Ghana to consider a career in psychiatry.

Description

Citation

Agyapong, V. I., & McLoughlin, D. (2012). Promoting psychiatry as a career option for Ghanaian medical students through a public-speaking competition. Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry, 36(3), 229–232. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ap.11010016

Publisher

License

Journal

Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry

Volume

36

Issue

3

PubMed ID

ISSN

1545-7230

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