Training psychiatric residents and fellows in a telepsychiatry clinic: a supervision model

The authors assess the effectiveness of a specialized telepsychiatry training and supervision training model.

Fifteen residents and eight child fellows rotated through Cedars Sinai Medical Center Telepsychiatry Developmental Disability Clinic and completed questionnaires of knowledge and self-assessed skills at commencement and completion of the rotation. The supervision was on site, side-by-side, and directive.

Both the residents and the fellows demonstrated improvement. Increase in knowledge was equal in the study cohorts, while residents' self-assessed skills were significantly greater than the fellows'.

A telepsychiatry clinic appears to be an appropriate setting in which to provide direct supervision. Exposure to such opportunities early in training may yield a greater impact.