Abstract:

Objective: The aim of the presented work was to investigate how doctors and nurses perceive their competency in the field of psychology, how they evaluate the training they had received and finally – their expectations in this area.

Material and methods: The trial consisted of 435 participants: 200 practicing doctors and 235 professionally active nurses. Data were gathered with a use of a self-report questionnaire. Participants rated their general psychological knowledge and listed psychological topics they remembered from the pre-graduation psychology courses and their usefulness in their clinical practice on the 5-point Likert scale (1 - indicating not useful at all, 5 – very useful). Finally, participants were asked to specify psychology topics that should be included in psychology courses at medical universities.

Results: The findings indicate that 67,5% of doctors and 25,5% of nurses were not able to recall any information from psychology courses. However, both groups perceived themselves as rather competent in this area. Nurses perceived psychological knowledge as more useful in their practice than doctors. Both professional groups reported interpersonal skills, coping with stress and dealing with death and dying as key psychological resources they would expect from psychology courses. Obtained results may be helpful in advancing psychology curriculas at medical universities to fit professional needs of medical specialists.