A Pilot Study of Psychiatry Resident Psychotherapy Competency: The Impact of Resident Attitude and Demographics

Objective: In psychiatry education, psychotherapy knowledge, skills, and attitudes are new competency objectives.

Methods: Two faculty members independently ranked psychiatry residents for psychotherapy competency. A rank of 1 indicated the most competency and a rank of 15 indicated the least competency for the resident psychotherapist. Several demographic and attitudinal variables of the residents were examined for relationships with psychotherapy competence.

Results: When the competency rankings of the two faculty members were compared, they demonstrated a high level of agreement (spearman r = 0.74, p = 0.0016). Of the variables studied, resident age (r = .61, p =.015) and personal attitude toward psychotherapy (S = 29, p = .026) were significantly associated with psychotherapy competency. Both variables remained independently significant after statistical adjustment.

Conclusions: Our study indicates that psychiatry resident attitude and age may influence psychotherapy competency. These markers for psychotherapy competency may assist training programs with resident selection parameters and may enhance psychotherapy educational strategies for residents predicted to require assistance in achieving competency.