[A questionnaire on Satisfaction from psychiatric Training]

In the context of the psychiatric reform, as well as of the lifelong education, a Questionnaire for the evaluation of "Satisfaction from Psychiatric Training" has been constructed. It consists of 4 subscales (Satisfaction from Materials, Trainers, Program Organization, and General Satisfaction) and a total of 19 closed-ended items, evaluated in 5-point Likert scales, and an open-ended question for general remarks. One hundred and seventy six subjects, who participated in 8 consecutive training programs in psychiatry, organized by the Vocational Training Center of the Psychiatric Hospital of Petra Olympus, Greece, completed the questionnaire anonymously. The sample was divided into two groups: group A (N=112, from the first 5 programs), for the evaluation of the questionnaire's properties, and group B (N=65, from the next 3 programs) for the validation of the results. Principal component analysis in group A showed the existence of 4 factors corresponding to the 4 subscales and accounted for 67.4% of the questionnaire's variability, which were also confirmed in group B. Internal consistency was high in both groups for the overall questionnaire (Cronbach α>0.92) and for each subscale. Test-retest reliability of every subscale was also high (Pearson's r>0.90). The answers in the open-ended remark question were graded by two independent judges in a 5-point Likert scale, in relation to the satisfaction they revealed, which was highly correlated with all questionnaire subscales but one. For the total sample, the questionnaire subscales showed moderately high correlation with one another (r from 0.629 to 0.706) and even higher with the overall score (from 0.820 to 0.892). The questionnaire's sensitivity was demonstrated by the statistically significant differences observed in the satisfaction experienced from the various programs. None of the subscales was significantly correlated with age (r<0.134), with years in work (r<0.059) or was differentiated by gender. In general, this is a brief and easy to use satisfaction questionnaire for psychiatric training programs, with very satisfactory psychometric properties and relatively independent from demographic variables. It covers the four most important satisfaction components, independently from the specific characteristics of trainees or programs. Thus, it can be used as the main axis of satisfaction evaluation in a variety of programs.