Assessing professionalism and ethics knowledge and skills: preferences of psychiatry residents

Professionalism is one of the fundamental expectations and a core competency in residency education. Although programs use a variety of evaluative methods, little is known about residents' views of and preferences regarding various methods of assessment.

The authors surveyed residents at seven psychiatry residency programs in the United States regarding their attitudes on professionalism, ethics preparation, and evaluation in psychiatry residency training. This report describes their views on methods of assessing professionalism.

Residents strongly agreed that clinical supervision is an appropriate assessment method. Moreover, they rated clinical supervision more highly than oral examinations, short-answer questions, essays, and standardized patient interactions. Residents also strongly favored direct faculty observation of residents' interactions with actual patients and clinical team members.

This study suggests that both direct faculty supervision and other clinically-based assessments are methods accepted by psychiatry residents. Future research on the validity and effectiveness of these modes of assessment is needed.