Objective: The authors assess the impact of Ghanaian diaspora-based psychiatrists' participation in clinical teaching in Ghana on the attitudes of medical students toward careers in psychiatry.
Methods: This quantitative cross-sectional study involved fifth- and sixth-year medical students of the four public medical schools in Ghana. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: About half (49.7%) of clinical year medical students in Ghana reported that diaspora-based Ghanaian psychiatrists participated in their teaching during their clinical psychiatry rotation. A significantly higher proportion of medical students who had diaspora-based psychiatrists participate in their clinical training expressed that the depth of clinical teaching (54.4% vs. 45.6%, p = 0.003) and the extent of experience gained during their psychiatric rotations (54.7% vs. 45.3%, p = 0.001) were adequate or somewhat adequate when compared with medical students who did not have diaspora psychiatrists participate in their clinical training. Medical students who had diaspora-based Ghanaian psychiatrists participate in their teaching were significantly more likely to consider careers in psychiatry after their clinical rotation (42.2% versus 25.6%, χ2 = 16.2, p = 0.00).
Conclusions: In a low-resource country with few psychiatrists, the involvement of diaspora-based psychiatrists in the teaching of clinical year medical students has the potential to improve the global experience and attitude of the medical students toward psychiatry.
Keywords: Clinical teaching; Diaspora; Medical students; Psychiatry.