Academic training in a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship: a curriculum based on leadership experience

The authors describe how one child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship program responded to emerging trends in clinical practice which increasingly demand that child and adolescent psychiatrists lead their colleagues through instruction and supervision.

Data from surveys of recent graduates of child and adolescent training programs were reviewed and the trends were identified. The authors describe the Academic Chief Fellow rotation, which was designed for the fellows to enhance their academic skills by teaching, guiding, and supervising their junior colleagues.

The authors describe the implementation of the new rotation and discuss the fellows' response. They also detail the responses of the medical students and residents who rotated on the child and adolescent psychiatry service under the Academic Chief Fellow.

Greater experience in teaching and supervising others can be meaningfully integrated into existing child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship curricula. Other outcomes may include greater medical student and general psychiatry resident satisfaction with their child and adolescent psychiatry rotation and greater interest among medical students in child and adolescent psychiatry as a career.