Assessing residents' competence in psychotherapy

Abstract

Objective: This article describes the development of a method for assessing resident competence in the five forms of psychotherapy specified in the program requirements for residency training in psychiatry.

Method: Concomitant with the rise of evidence-based medicine. There has been a movement toward evidence-based training from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). In the year 2000, the Residency Review Committee (RRC) for psychiatry issued specific requirements for the assessment of residency competence in five forms of psychotherapy. This article describes how a system of assessment was developed using "brainstorming" and the Delphi method to meet these requirements and gives examples of the assessment tools that were utilized.

Conclusion: A simple system that does not overly tax limited faculty resources can be developed to meet the new RRC requirements.