Handbook of Psychiatric Education

Book excerpt: The Handbook of Psychiatric Education is a comprehensive, authoritative text that covers everything the educator needs to know about recruiting, teaching, supervising, mentoring, and evaluating students and trainees in psychiatry programs. This second edition is a total departure from the previous one, released more than 15 years ago, and constitutes an entirely original text rather than a revision. Under the direction of a new editor, who has many years of experience directing psychiatry training programs, as well as serving as president of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Programs, the book's content has been expanded and completely updated by a stellar list of contributors with intimate knowledge of their topics. In addition to foundational knowledge about adult learning, professionalism, and supervision, the book explores essential topics such as residency recruitment, student advising, curriculum, assessment and evaluation, accreditation, financing, residency administration, and much more. Specifically, the book Outlines a scholarly approach to psychiatric education to avoid burnout caused by concurrent clinical and educational demands. This entails building a framework of goals, objectives, and resources; implementing methods to identify barriers, measure outcomes, and seek feedback; and laying the foundation for educational scholarship, which advances knowledge in psychiatric education via peer review and publication. Explores the burnout, depression, and suicide risks common among physicians, especially younger ones, and covers the new ACGME mandates that address faculty and resident wellness and mental health, as well as ways to enhance resilience by attending to stress over the residency trajectory. Examines the key components of psychotherapy supervision, from defining learning goals and establishing clear contractual obligations for each party to maintaining critically important boundaries within supervision to maintain healthy professional relationships and educational environments. Addresses diversity and inclusion in psychiatry training, first by examining the LCME accreditation standard introduced in 2009, next by considering the impact of recruiting international medical graduates, and finally by discussing holistic review, a flexible approach to increasing diversity and promoting equity in the GME recruitment process. Includes references to web-based content so that the reader may obtain the most current information about training and employ the book's principles in the context of those updated regulations and guidelines, maintaining the book's usefulness as the landscape changes with time. Beautifully written, down-to-earth, and full of the kind of practical knowledge it takes years to acquire firsthand, the Handbook of Psychiatric Education should be required reading for any faculty member assuming administrative educational responsibilities.