Thinking Outside of Outpatient: Underutilized Settings for Psychotherapy Education.

Objective: Although psychiatry residents are expected to achieve competency in conducting psychotherapy during their training, it is unclear how psychotherapy teaching is integrated across diverse clinical settings.

Methods: Between January and March 2015, 177 psychiatry residency training directors were sent a survey asking about psychotherapy training practices in their programs, as well as perceived barriers to psychotherapy teaching.

Results: Eighty-two training directors (44%) completed the survey. While 95% indicated that psychotherapy was a formal learning objective for outpatient clinic rotations, fifty percent or fewer noted psychotherapy was a learning objective in other settings. Most program directors would like to see psychotherapy training included (particularly supportive psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy) on inpatient (82%) and consultation-liaison settings (57%). The most common barriers identified to teaching psychotherapy in these settings were time and perceived inadequate staff training and interest.

Conclusions: Non-outpatient rotations appear to be an underutilized setting for psychotherapy teaching.