Trainees assessment of vocational training in psychiatry: a pilot study at the Maudsley Hospital

The adequacy of postgraduate trainees is assessed rather more frequently than that of the teaching process. A survey was therefore undertaken of the views of sixty-two junior psychiatrists regarding the clinical units they had worked on during their 3-year rotational training programme at the Maudsley Hospital. The quality of the training experience was felt to be related to work load (not too light), to the number of trainees attached to each consultant, and to the attention given by the consultant to instruction on practical management. The factors felt to need most attention were feedback from consultants on the trainee's performance, and the standards of academic instruction and of interdisciplinary teamwork.