Some Characteristics of Inpatient Psychiatric Training

Abstract

The expanding knowledge base in biological psychiatry and heightened fiscal concerns about proper hospital bed utilization have affected inpatient psychiatric practice. To determine how this might be influencing residency education in the inpatient psychiatric setting, we surveyed Residency Training Directors. The survey found that the inpatient setting remains a major site for educating residents, accounting for a total of approximately one year of a psychiatrist’s training. In the period from 1975 to 1980, a moderate number of programs slightly increased their required exposure to inpatient psychiatry; a very few decreased their requirement. Also, inpatient psychiatry remains primarily the domain of junior residents and in this regard is probably not optimally utilized.