Adequacy of psychiatric training: a Singaporean perspective

The specialty training program for psychiatry in Singapore is transitioning to a seamless 5-year training program. It is timely to assess the perceived adequacy of current psychiatric specialty training.

An anonymous survey was sent to all psychiatry trainees and psychiatrists in the public sector to assess the current adequacy and perceived importance of 11 aspects of psychiatric specialist training.

Forty-nine percent of those surveyed (54 of 110) replied. The current adequacy of training was rated lower than the perceived importance of training for all 11 aspects of training. Those aspects of training rated most important were disorder and diagnosis, pharmacological treatment, clinical interview, and treatment skills. Psychiatrists rated most aspects of training as being more important than did trainees except for cultural aspects, research, and basic neuroscience. Psychiatrists rated adequacy of training better than did trainees, except in the aspect of research. The difference between psychiatrists' and trainees' ratings for adequacy of psychotherapy treatment knowledge was significant (p<0.05).

There were perceived deficiencies in all 11 aspects of training. Psychiatrists and trainees have different perceptions of adequacy and importance of training.