PHILOSOPHY AND METHODOLOGY IN THE TRAINING OF 500 PSYCHIATRIC RESIDENTS

The broad objectives of the VA residency program are to train physicians to be highly competent psychiatrists, to qualify them especially for urgently needed services in VA hospitals and concurrently to improve the administrative and clinical care rendered by the VA to its patients. Such training programs are best conducted in VA hospitals capable of establishing a close academic and personnel liaison with medical and university faculties, psychoanalytic institutes, scientific societies, and a range of clinical facilities usually available only in or near metropolitan centers; indeed, it may be advisable to consolidate our current program into a relatively few such centers strategically distributed over the country. Until special tests with demonstrably better predictive value are worked out, candidates may be selected on the bases of favorable records, personality evaluations and, where practicable, trial periods in actual service. General 3-year curricula of didactic, laboratory, and clinical instruction are presented for adaptation to local requirements. In every case, however, concerted efforts must be made to integrate the program with administrative practices and to secure effective cooperation among consultants, staff, residents, and hospital personnel. Finally, all programs must subserve their primary and transcendent motif: the development of psychiatric theory and practice as fields not only of incalculable current service but of even greater promise for the future of humanity.