Geriatrics education in psychiatric residencies: a national survey of program directors

The authors describe the current characteristics of geriatrics training within general psychiatry training programs.

In the fall of 2006, a survey was mailed and made available online to all U.S. psychiatric residency program directors (N=181).

The response rate was 54% (n=97). Of the responding psychiatry programs, 96% (n=93) required a clinical experience in geriatrics, with a mean of 54.9 half days of required clinical training. The predominant training sites were inpatient geriatric psychiatry acute care units, ambulatory care experiences precepted by one or more geriatric psychiatrists, and outpatient geriatric psychiatry assessment centers. The mean number of physician faculty per residency program available to teach geriatrics was 2.8 full-time equivalents, and the mean number of physicians certified in geriatric psychiatry was 3.2 per program. Conflicting time demands with other curricula was ranked as the most significant barrier to expanding geriatrics training.

Variability in the amount of time devoted to geriatrics training exists across general psychiatric residency programs. Some residents spend very little time in specific required geriatric psychiatry clinical experiences and have limited exposure to well-trained geriatric psychiatrists. Therefore, some psychiatrists who will take care of older patients in the future may be ill prepared to do so.