Supervision and Boundaries in a Combined Family Practice and Psychiatry Residency Training Program: The National Capital Consortium Experience

Abstract

The combined discipline of family practice and psychiatry was created in 1995. There are no established guidelines for 1) teaching residents how to integrate these two specialties, 2) providing appropriate supervision, and 3) helping residents develop personal and professional boundaries. The authors share their approach and aim to stimulate dialogue and promote the establishment of standards for combined programs. The authors review some of the difficulties encountered in supervising family practice-psychiatry residents and the rationale for their approach. Providing residents with clear boundaries of practice and supervision that initially separate the two specialties during training facilitates the development of specialty knowledge and skills as well as the capacity to form clear boundaries. Our experience suggests that only when residents learn the appropriate practice and boundaries of each specialty can they successfully integrate the two without boundary or role confusion.