Educational objectives in psychiatric residency training: a survey of training directors and residents

The authors surveyed 200 physicians completing their psychiatric residencies on the importance and achievement of 124 core training objectives. One hundred thirty (65%) of the residents and all 23 of the training directors of the programs selected responded. As a group, residents viewed a substantial number of the objectives as less important, and less well accomplished, than did their training directors. The discordantly rated objectives fell in several basic areas of psychiatric competence, such as the management of schizophrenia and drug side effects. Certain objectives were rated at a lower level of accomplishment by residents from smaller programs. Possible factors accounting for these differences are briefly considered.