2.2. Sample recruitment
somatic disease, mentally ill, psychiatric disorders
INFECTIOUS DISEASES, RECRUITMENT
Only fourth-year medical students enrolled at the HHU and capable of giving consent were included in the study. The data was collected during the 2019/20 winter semester. Students who attended the practical block on psychosomatic medicine were assigned to the IG. Students who attended a practical block with a focus on somatics (practical blocks on cardiology, urology, gastroenterology, ophthalmology) were assigned to the CG. In contrast to the instruction given to the CG, the IG experienced supervised contact with mentally ill patients and explored psychiatric disorders in more depth based on patient cases (see Introduction). While the practical blocks included in the CG had instruction on somatic disease pictures, there were no guided interactions with Recruitment took place within the scope of the practical blocks at the Düsseldorf LVR Clinic, in the Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and at the Düsseldorf University Hospital in the Clinic for Cardiology, Pneumology and Angiology, the Clinic for Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases, the Clinic for Urology, and the Clinic for Ophthalmology. The data was collected on paper in the seminar rooms at each clinic after the students had received an informational email on the friday before and after detailed information was given in-person at the clinics and the students had submitted written consents to voluntarily participate in the study. Non-participation had no negative repercussions for the students; likewise, the consent to participate could be revoked at any time.The exclusion criteria were prior attendance of a practical block on psychosomatic medicine or psychiatry and retrospectively an attendance rate of the current practical block lower than 70%. In addition, students in the IG and CG were subsequently excluded if they had not been present to observe a patient consultation and had not conducted one themselves.A sample size of Figure 1 