Self-managed psychiatry seminars as a model of active student participation in undergraduate education

In the last decade, medical students stood out as active agents in their training, which implies their involvement in the design, implementation, evaluation, and curricular co-governance. This article describes a model of active undergraduate student participation from 2014 to 2021 and compares the face-to-face and synchronous online modalities, later brought forward by the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. Annually, a call was made to UC School of Medicine undergraduate students to establish the topics and areas to be addressed during self-managed seminars. Then, medical students located in Chile were invited to attend the activity. Psychiatry was established as a priority topic in six out of eight years. Five seminars were conducted, the last two in synchronous online mode. The number of people enrolled in the online modality increased by 251% compared to the face-to-face modality (face-to-face mean = 133 +/- 33 SD; online mean = 336 +/- 24SD), with no significant differences in rates of attendance between modalities (Odds ratio (OR) = 1,12; 95% CI= 0,82 - 1,55; p = 0,45). The online modality was associated with a higher proportion of enrollees belonging to an institution outside the Metropolitan Region (OR 12,63; 95% CI = 8,64 - 18,46; p < 0,01). The self-managed psychiatry seminars correspond to a model of active undergraduate student participation, with the synchronous online modality representing an opportunity to massify it throughout the national territory.