Impact of patient suicide on psychiatry residents: protocol of a qualitative study

Psychiatrists' first exposure to patient suicide often occurs during residency training. Previous research shows that experiencing a patient's death by suicide during residency can have significant impacts on trainees' well-being, self-esteem and approach to practice. However, existing research on this topic is mostly limited to survey-based data, which does not facilitate nuanced exploration. This study will use a qualitative approach to gain an in-depth understanding of Canadian psychiatry residents' experiences of a patient's death by suicide and the types of supports that may help trainees to process this loss and integrate this experience into their professional identity formation.

This study will conduct 15-25 semistructured qualitative interviews with psychiatry resident physicians across Canada to explore their experiences of patient loss by suicide during training. Interview data will be transcribed verbatim and analysed using the principles of Constructivist Grounded Theory.

The study findings will be reported and accessible to residency training programmes, the academic community, the media and the public.This study was approved by the Research Ethics Board of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Protocol Identifying Number 2024/125).