Training residents for community psychiatric practice: the resident perspective

To capture the views and experiences of psychiatry residents in 5 Canadian training programs with respect to community psychiatric training.

We sent a questionnaire regarding respondent demography, career interests, and community psychiatry training experiences to psychiatry residents at 5 training programs in Ontario. We undertook descriptive analyses and frequency comparisons on the returned data.

The overall response rate was 48%, with considerable variation between programs. With respect to career planning, respondents indicated highest interest in urban hospital-based practice. An interest in additional community psychiatry training was, however, expressed, particularly by junior residents. Residents' suggestions for improving community psychiatry training included better promotion of training opportunities, improved quality of supervision in community settings, and more didactic teaching.

Psychiatry residents are obtaining training experiences in community psychiatry, but objectives and guidelines are quite variable, as is reflected in their understanding of the definition of "community psychiatry." Residents' career paths are still focused on urban hospital-based practice or solo private practice, which likely reflects their prevalent training experiences. There is, however, interest in community psychiatry training. Junior residents may be more open to this type of practice, and curricula should allow more exposure to community psychiatry at this stage of training.