Santosh K. Chaturvedi is Professor of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India, and works within consultation liaison psychiatry. His research interests include quality-of-life issues, psychiatric education and training, and psychosomatic medicine. Ritu Goel is a senior house officer on the North East London Mental Health NHS Trust and University College London rotational training scheme. Her research interests are in the molecular basis of neuropsychiatry and in audit. Dinesh Bhugra is Dean of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Professor of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity, and Head of the Section of Cultural Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, London (Box 25, Health Services Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. Email: d.bhugra{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk). His research interests include psychosexual medicine, cross-cultural psychiatry, schizophrenia, pathways into psychiatric care, self-harm and primary care.
Abstract
We discuss the implications of our systematic review of the evidence regarding current postgraduate psychiatric training methods in the UK. The review found only 24 papers on the topic, 10 of which were research based. None of the papers addressed the reliability and validity of the teaching methods studied. These papers suggest that issues regarding psychiatric training and education in the UK have been addressed only to a limited extent. There is thus an urgent need for more rigorous and scientific evaluation of training methods, especially now that training and assessment are changing in the UK.