Why is it essential to teach clinical interviewing in psychiatric training? Proposal for a course implemented at the...

Diagnosis in psychiatry relies primarily on the clinical interview, but instruction in interview techniques is often relegated to the informal curriculum and acquired incidentally. This article presents a structured curriculum model for training adult psychiatry residents in psychiatric interviewing. In this article, we describe the Psychiatric Interview Workshop, a weekly, year-long activity implemented at the Universidad de Valparaíso (Chile), which is based on deliberate observation, constructive feedback, and theoretical enrichment. The workshop methodology combines reading a guidebook, initial instructor modeling, and supervised active practice. In each session, a resident conducts a clinical interview with a real, volunteer, clinically stable patient in the presence of peers and the instructor. Observation is guided by a standardized Observation Checklist. Subsequently, a Constructive Feedback Protocol is applied, focusing strictly on interview technique, promoting discussion and the search for alternative solutions to difficulties. The workshop is presented as a formal teaching strategy that, in our opinion, ensures the explicit and systematic acquisition of interview techniques. The strengths of the model lie in its ecological validity (practice with real patients), duration (one year), instructor modeling, and the use of standardized, task-oriented feedback. This model contributes to the limited evidence regarding structured methods for teaching the psychiatric interview. Remaining challenges include the incorporation of an objective summative practical assessment, measuring the workshop's impact on student performance and satisfaction, and adapting the literature to the local sociocultural context.