The fate of the clinical interview: an observational study

To highlight differences between data observed in patient interviews conducted by medical students and reports of these data in supervision, the authors compared the number of themes in 26 videotaped interviews with those reported by the students in supervision. They found that 54% of the themes of the videotaped interviews were not reported in supervision; 42% of the themes were reported. Some degree of distortion was present in 14 (54%) of the interviews; 6% (N = 37) of the themes identified were distorted. The authors conclude that the training of students in psychiatry must include careful attention to observation of the manifest details of the actual patient interview conducted by the student.