Reintroducing the internship: reactions of three departments of psychiatry

The reintroduction of the internship requirement has caused a number of changes in psychiatric education in the past decade. Many psychiatric educators and departments of psychiatry have been faced with the challenges of organizing internships and establishing an internship curriculum. This has been especially challenging because the psychiatrists involved have seldom had full postgraduate training in the fields being organized and have not previously administrated clinical services in those areas. The authors discuss the goals of the internship for future psychiatrists and the pros and cons of university versus community general hospital based internships for future psychiatrists, and find several potential advantages to the latter. Also discussed are their consistent observations of internship programs for future psychiatrists over the past decade in three geographically separate regions and in state and private institutions. They and most other faculty members in their respective departments believe that the reinstitution of the internship has had largely beneficial effects on future psychiatrists.