The decline of state mental hospitals as training sites for psychiatric residents

There has been national concern regarding the decreasing number of U.S. medical students entering psychiatric residency training programs in the 1970s at the same time that the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee (GMENAC) report designated psychiatry as one of only three medical specialties with a manpower shortage. The authors document the decline in psychiatric residents in state mental hospitals from 1975 to 1980 and analyze five possible explanations for this absolute and relative decrease. They discuss approaches to altering the situation as well as the emerging role of the state mental hospital in the future training of psychiatric residents.