Vicarious traumatization and coping in medical students: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored the impact of traumatic experiences on medical students during their clerkships. METHODS: Medical students completed an anonymous online survey inquiring about traumatic experiences on required clerkships during their third year of medical school, including any symptoms they may have experienced as well as coping strategies they may have used. RESULTS: Twenty-six percent of students reported experiencing vicarious traumatization (VT) during their third year of medical school. CONCLUSIONS: The experience of VT in medical students is relevant to medical educators, given that the resulting symptoms may impact student performance and learning as well as ongoing well-being. Fifty percent of the students who experienced VT in this study did so on the psychiatry clerkship. It is important for psychiatrists to recognize that this is a potential risk for students in order to increase the likelihood that appropriate supports are provided.

Engaging a New Generation of Trainees: Amplifying Voices of Color.

Children in the US are facing a mental health crisis, which is not felt evenly across racial groups. In 2021, suicide was the second leading cause of death for those aged 10 to 24 years, rising 52% from 2000.1 Non-Hispanic American Indian (AI) and Alaska Native (AN) youth have the highest risk.1 Suicide among Black youth has increased by 60% from 2001 to 2017.2 Suicide rates also increased among Hispanic persons by 6.8% from 2018 to 2021.3 Between 2019 and 2021, suicide rates decreased by 3.9% among non-Hispanic White people, but increased among non-Hispanic AI/AN by 26% and non-Hispanic Black by 19.2%.1 The current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data indicate that parents report that 1 in 6 children aged 2 to 8 years have a mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder, which are most common between 6 and 11 years of age. There is significant chronicity, as approximately half of adults with mental illnesses are diagnosed before age 15 years.4 The burdens of chronic mental health concerns can lead to subsequent disability that is disproportionately high for racially and ethnically minoritized groups relative to White persons.5 Early interventions can lead to better outcomes; however, there is a shortage of pediatric psychiatrists.6.

Racial Implicit Associations in Child Psychiatry.

OBJECTIVE: Racial disparities in diagnosis and treatment are prevalent in child psychiatry, including disparate diagnosis rates of internalizing and externalizing disorders in Black and White children. However, limited research has investigated mechanisms that contribute to these disparities. This study examined child racial implicit associations in psychiatric clinicians and medical students to address this gap. METHOD: Psychiatrists and trainees completed an online survey including 2 race Implicit Association Tests (IATs) pairing child faces to words with either positive or negative valence, and words related to internalizing or externalizing behavioral problems. Psychiatrists and trainees' demographic predictors of implicit associations were also investigated. RESULTS: Data were analyzed from 235 psychiatrists and trainees (112 child and adolescent psychiatrists and fellows) who met inclusion criteria. Psychiatrists and trainees demonstrated greater moderate-to-strong association between Black child faces and "bad" (ie, negatively valenced) words (44.3%) vs "good" (ie, positively valenced) words (6.4%), and between externalizing words (41.7%) vs internalizing words (7.2%). Psychiatrists and trainees' demographic characteristics including being female (ß = -0.12; 95% CI = -0.23 to -0.01; p < .05), Black (ß = -0.36; 95% CI = -0.54 to -0.18; p < .001), or an attending physician (ß = -0.26; 95% CI = -0.45 to -0.06; p = .01) were significant predictors of decreased association between Black child faces and negative valence words. Being female was a significant predictor of decreased association between Black child faces and externalizing words (ß = -0.26; 95% CI = -0.45 to -0.06; p = .01). CONCLUSION: Participating psychiatrists and trainees demonstrated bias toward associating Black rather than White child faces with negative words and externalizing behavioral problems. Future research should examine the following: racial implicit associations in a more generalizable sample; the relationship between race IATs and provider behavior; and interventions to reduce racial inequities in psychiatry, including individual and systemic solutions. DIVERSITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT: We worked to ensure sex and gender balance in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure that the study questionnaires were prepared in an inclusive way. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented sexual and/or gender groups in science. We actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our author group. We actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our author group. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science. One or more of the authors of this paper received support from a program designed to increase minority representation in science.

All Shades of Anxiety: A Review of Therapeutic and Psychotropic Considerations for Child and Adolescent Youth of Color.

The literature on anxiety in Black, Indigenous, and other persons of color youth is a developing area. This article highlights distinct areas for the clinician to consider in working with these populations. We highlight prevalence and incidence, race-related stress, social media, substance use, spirituality, the impact of social determinants of health (including COVID-19 and the Syndemic), as well as treatment considerations. Our aim is to contribute to the readers' developing cultural humility.

Tools to Craft a Cultural Formulation.

Clinicians should strive to understand every patient from their own perspective. The authors present tools to help patients narrate their own experiences and elaborate on the context of their symptoms, allowing clinicians to appreciate the cultural influences on a patient and how that affects their symptomatology. This knowledge can then be crafted into a nuanced cultural formulation of the patient, with the goals of not only better understanding the patient's specific, intersectional context but also guiding treatment planning. As a result, the patient is evaluated in a holistic manner, and their specific needs are central in their care.

Achieving Mental Health Equity: Children and Adolescents.

This article briefly reviews the influences of protective and risk factors of child and adolescent mental health, and explores promising practices and outcomes of evidence-based programs designed to improve the mental health of youth, and the barriers for accessing quality and evidence-based child and adolescent mental health service delivery systems. The authors provide recommendations for individual practice improvements and policy, funding, and organizational practice improvements that will support mental health equity in child and adolescent populations.

Clinician Response to a Child Who Completes Suicide.

Although suicide is a leading cause of death for children and adolescents, there is a dearth of literature on clinician responses to suicides in that age group. However, most psychiatrists experience the death of a patient by suicide, with resulting grief reactions including shock, isolation, rumination, self-doubt, and impact on clinical decision making. The impact is more pronounced in trainee clinicians. Postvention is the clinical, administrative, legal, and emotional processes following a suicide. These processes are discussed in detail, with recommendations for policies and training that assist clinicians with this tragic, but common, professional crisis.

Are Scores From NBME Subject Examinations Valid Measures of Knowledge Acquired During Clinical Clerkships?

PURPOSE: The National Board of Medical Examiners' Clinical Science Subject Examinations are a component used by most U.S. medical schools to determine clerkship grades. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of this practice. METHOD: This was a retrospective cohort study of medical students at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine who completed clerkships in 2012 through 2014. Linear regression was used to determine how well United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 scores predicted Subject Examination scores in seven clerkships. The authors then substituted each student's Subject Examination standard scores with his or her Step 1 standard score. Clerkship grades based on the Step 1 substitution were compared with actual grades with the Wilcoxon rank test. RESULTS: A total of 2,777 Subject Examination scores from 432 students were included in the analysis. Step 1 scores significantly predicted between 23% and 44% of the variance in Subject Examination scores, P < .001 for all clerkship regression equations. Mean differences between expected and actual Subject Examination scores were small (≤ 0.2 points). There was a match between 73% of Step 1 substituted final clerkship grades and actual final clerkship grades. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that performance on Step 1 can be used to identify and counsel students at risk for poor performance on the Subject Examinations. In addition, these findings call into the question the validity of using scores from Subject Examinations as a high-stakes assessment of learning in individual clerkships.

The muslim child, adolescent, and family.

This article reviews the basic tenets of Islam, the second-most populous religion in the world. The practice of Islam can be affected by ethnic and cultural factors; therefore, the influence of various cultures (such as Arab, Pakistani, and African American) as seen in practice with Muslim children and their families is discussed.

Training child and adolescent psychiatrists to be culturally competent.

The changing face of the United States urges the field of child and adolescent psychiatry toward more culturally sensitive care. This article gives a comprehensive review of the history of cultural education, empirical findings that speak to its need, and the challenges that may be faced in the conception and implementation of a cultural competency curriculum. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's model curriculum is presented to help child and adolescent residency programs design one that is specific to their resources and needs.

Psychiatry clerkship students' preparation, reflection, and results on the NBME Psychiatry Subject Exam.

OBJECTIVE: Psychiatry clerkship training involves many learning components, one of which is acquisition of scholarly knowledge. The authors investigate the reading materials and learning methods used by clinical clerks in their preparation for the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Psychiatry Subject Exam (PSE). METHODS: Clerkship students from six U.S. medical schools who had recently completed their psychiatry clerkship and PSE were surveyed regarding reading material use, teaching methods encountered, and other relevant resources which may have influenced their PSE scores. RESULTS: The most frequently used PSE preparation material was a "step-or-prep" book, followed by practice questions, handouts, and assigned texts. No single preparation material type or combination proved significantly different in influencing PSE scores. The didactic methods used in clerkships did differ significantly in their influence on PSE scores. Students in the top quartile used slightly more books and different combinations of books than students in the bottom quartile. CONCLUSION: Students exhibited several trends in their preparation for the PSE. The most striking findings were the heavy student reliance on step-or-prep books over other learning resources and that step-or-prep books did not demonstrate significance as a superior preparation resource for the PSE. These trends in third-year psychiatric rotations have important implications for medical student education.

A 2-year progress report of the AACAP-Harvard Macy Teaching Scholars Program.

OBJECTIVE: The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) has partnered with the Harvard Macy Program for Healthcare Educators so that selected child and adolescent psychiatry academic faculty might enhance their teaching expertise in order to possibly enhance recruitment of medical students into child and adolescent psychiatry. METHODS: Thirteen child psychiatry faculty have graduated from the AACAP-Harvard Macy Teaching Scholars Program (HMTSP). There are 10 additional child and adolescent psychiatry faculty members in the process of completing the program. A survey was created to broadly assess the effect of the AACAP-HMTSP training on the first 13 graduates of the program as a pilot to guide future study of the program. Three teaching scholars who are the first authors of this article (JH, DS, MH) conducted this survey and the data interpretation for this study. RESULTS: Thirteen of the scholars submitted responses to the survey. All participants indicated a high degree of satisfaction with the HMTSP and with the overall usefulness of the concepts learned. All but one of the scholars reported that the program enhanced their teaching effectiveness. The scholars reported increased teaching of medical students (9 of 13) and psychiatry residents (6 of 13) after the HMTSP. CONCLUSION: The AACAP-Harvard Macy Teaching Scholars reported high levels of satisfaction with the overall program. Whether the reported increase in medical student and psychiatry resident mentoring and teaching will eventually lead to increased medical student recruitment into child and adolescent psychiatry remains to be determined.