Improving Training Programs

Every year approximately 900 medical school graduates enter psychiatry residency programs. New residents provide an opportunity for programs to come up with new ideas and improve the way they operate by carefully analyzing new residents' critiques and comments.

Most psychiatry programs will be judged “in the middle,” with residents applying the adage that the glass is half empty or half full. With the encouragement of chief residents and program directors, however, both views should be sought as they will lead to the identification of each program's strong and weak points.

If we encourage the process of listening to new residents' points of view and working with constructive ideas, the opportunity of having new residents every year will have another dimension.