Psychiatric education of the internist: A teaching conference approach

Abstract

Communication with the nonpsychiatric physician is of major concern to the consultation-liaison psychiatrist. Fundamental differences in the language, literature, and teaching methods of psychiatrists and of nonpsychiatric physicians frequently impede effective collaboration and, more important, interfere with excellent patient care. With this difficulty in mind, the authors redesigned a pre-existing “patient care conference” to more closely follow the format of a traditional medical teaching conference. This article discusses the new format and the problems it has uncovered, and describes references that have proven useful in the program.