Teaching scholarly activity in psychiatric training: years 6 and 7

To address nationally recognized needs for increased numbers of psychiatric clinician-scholars and physician-scientists, the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT) has provided a series of full-day conferences of psychiatry residency training directors designed to increase their competence in evidence-based medicine, enhance their research literacy, and aid them in transmitting that knowledge to their programs.

These conferences take place on the day before AADPRT's annual meeting. Each year's pre-meeting conference includes a series of morning plenary sessions covering new information pertaining to a contemporary clinical theme.

The clinical theme serves as a vehicle to teach evidence-based practice and research and neuroscience literacy. The theme is carried into the afternoon with a series of highly interactive small-group teaching sessions designed to consolidate knowledge and provide pragmatic teaching tools appropriate for residents. A detailed report of the first 5 years documented the excellent attendance, perceived satisfaction, and usefulness of the material.

This report highlights the evolution of the program from the first 5 years to Years 6 and 7, details how new pedagogic and funding challenges have been approached, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the revised format, and describes plans for the future.