Psychosocial support of residents in family practice programs

Family practice residency programs (N = 347) were surveyed to examine the frequency of 11 kinds of psychosocial support available to residents through their programs. Family practice programs offer a considerable number of support elements to residents, with programs showing much homogeneity in the kinds of support offered. The size of a program does influence the kinds of support available, with small programs less likely than medium or large programs to offer the formal kinds of support examined in this study. Four patterns of support emerge from the data, each reflecting a specific orientation: (1) the psychological orientation, (2) the "bare bones" of support, (3) the support group orientation, and (4) the family orientation. In general, the kinds of support that address the residents' family needs are least likely to be available. Because time away from work helps to relieve the pressures of residency training, length of vacation and frequency of night call were also examined. On the average, first year residents cover night call every 3.64 nights and have 2.4 weeks of vacation.