Concern has been expressed about the number of medical students who are not choosing psychiatry as a career.

We describe the methods used by one teacher to teach medical students psychiatry in a medical school in England.

The teacher describes methods which he has found worthwhile in teaching psychiatry.

An important method is one to one working with a student and a patient during clinic. The student takes the patient's history and the teacher sits with him, intervening when necessary, thus making the environment ‘safe’.

Socratic questioning is frequently used in order to enable the student to think for himself.

Students are encouraged to take the opportunity of the attachment to carry out an audit or a piece of research or an in depth case report of their choice using literature searches or the database of patients and conditions held by the teacher's team. If successful, the student is helped by the teacher to publish the work in a pubmed journal or as a poster in a major conference.

Most important is debriefing students after seeing patients. Opportunity is taken to teach about Michael Balint's understanding of communication skills, and the value of the student's own personality in the doctor-patient relationship and the importance of this in aiding patients to recover from illness.

Experience is that these methods are appreciated by students. Students are likely to be influenced in their career choices by meeting doctors who can demonstrate that they value the student's own worth.