Psychiatric Consultation Education—1976

Abstract

• The teaching of consultation liaison (CL) psychiatry to psychiatric residents, medical students, and other trainees is reported from 92 medical schools, representing 81% of those surveyed with a one-page questionnaire. Psychiatric residency programs devote approximately 10% of their time to CL training, a slight increase over the percentage ten years ago. Approximately 35% of medical students in programs from which we received responses have some consultation CL education, although this varies from a few seminars to an eight-week fulltime rotation. Other trainees receiving CL experience include nonpsychiatric residents and interns (22 programs), psychologists (18), nurses (12), and social workers (5). Program directors report an approximately 90% "favorable" reaction to such training by all trainees. Consultation liaison training for residents still represents a small portion of their entire experience. A surprisingly large percentage of medical students are exposed to CL education, but with tremendous variation in that exposure. Other trainees are not heavily involved in CL programs, indicating a possible future expansion of integrated psychosomatic teaching. The data presented should serve as a comparative baseline for future program design.