Community Psychiatrists Who See Geriatric Patients: What's Training Got to Do With It?

Abstract

Residency program curricula might capitalize on these to better prepare residents and enhance the likelihood of graduates eventually choosing to incorporate geriatric patients into their practices.

What Makes Residents Interested in Geriatric Psychiatry? A Pan-Canadian Online Survey of Psychiatry Residents

“…Our data confirmed that interest in becoming a geriatric psychiatrist is strongly and independently influenced by positive experiences taking care of older adults prior to medical school; 18 early clinical experiences with older adults; 7e9 comfort working with geriatric patients and their families; 19 as well as the presence of annual conferences in our field. 10 Our results seem to also support the importance of other overlapping factors including the enjoyment of the interface of medicine and psychiatry, 7,9,10,12,13 an interest in interdisciplinary/multifactorial issues, 10 and positive supervisory/mentorship experiences. 7,9,10 Future studies could build upon our findings and explore more deeply the effects of culture (e.g., close intergenerational relationships), personality traits, and personal experience (e.g., close relationships with grandparents).…”

“…In addition to age, geographic location, marital status, and language, we evaluated a number of variables that have been previously associated with geriatric psychiatry interest: demographic factors (female sex, 15 Caucasian ethnicity 16 ); educational factors (exposure to geriatric psychiatry rotations in residency or in medical school; 7e9 positive clinical experiences in geriatric psychiatry; 7,9 the training setting during geriatric psychiatry rotations [e.g., inpatient; outpatient; nursing homes; 16 memory clinic; 7,9,10 ); and vocational factors (comfort with and interest in medical, neuropsychiatric, and multifactorial clinical issues; 7,9,10,12,13 tolerance of ambiguity; 17 as well as the presence of annual conferences in our field 10 ). We also evaluated variables previously identified as potential predictors of geriatric medicine career interest: positive past experiences with older adults; 18 a high degree of comfort working with geriatric patients and their families; 19 as well as a feeling that the lifestyle was attractive, income was increased, and training was brief.…”

“…Previous reports have identified a number of potential predictors of interest in geriatric psychiatry among psychiatry residents including: exposure to geriatric psychiatry rotations early in residency or in medical school; 7e9 positive clinical experiences in geriatric psychiatry; 7,9 educational activities about seniors that involve emotional engagement of trainees; 7,10,11 positive interactions with supervisors; 7,9,10 and comfort with and interest in medical, neuropsychiatric, and multifactorial clinical issues commonly encountered in geriatric psychiatry. 7,9,10,12,13 Although previous reports in this area have been relatively consistent, all previous studies examining interest in geriatric psychiatry among a general sample of psychiatry residents have had fewer than 40 participants, have been largely exploratory or qualitative, have not used a nationally representative study population, and have not systematically investigated a broad range of potential variables associated with interest in geriatric psychiatry. For these reasons we conducted a national Canadian Internet survey of psychiatry residents assessing the following: the proportion of residents who are interested in becoming geriatric psychiatrists, undergoing geriatric psychiatry fellowship (additional formal RCPC or informal post-residency training), or taking care of older adults as part of their future clinical practice; as well as the demographic, educational, and vocational variables associated with interest in becoming a geriatric psychiatrist.…”

Geriatric psychiatry education in Canada: the pathway to subspecialty recognition

“…These skills will have been acquired in an integrated fashion with patients from across the lifespan, rather than as an isolated "geriatric" experience late in the residency, when many other interests may have already developed. This represents a very significant change in the amount of training that all Canadian psychiatrists will have received with older patients, and may result in general psychiatrists being more willing and comfortable to tackle geriatric patients in their practices (Lieff, et al, 2004). These psychiatrists will be equipped to deal with those patient scenarios that are more involved than would usually be handled in the primary care setting, and that require psychiatric expertise.…”