Guidelines for competency-based instruction in psychiatry

This paper presents guidelines for teachers who wish to design competency-based instructional activities in psychiatry. Developed over a 3 year period, these guidelines outline the methods used by teachers to construct competency-based seminars and clinical rotations. The guidelines describe the process of stating knowledge objectives, performance objectives and experiential objectives for psychiatric trainees to attain prior to completion of training in a given area. Selection of appropriate teaching strategies as well as criteria and conditions for assessment of the residents' abilities are also reviewed. Comments regarding the authors' experience using these guidelines with teachers are offered.