Educational Supervision Appropriate for Psychiatry Trainee's Needs

Objective: The authors studied the regularity and content of supervision sessions in one of the U. K. postgraduate psychiatric training schemes (Mid-Trent). Methods: A questionnaire sent to psychiatry trainees assessed the timing and duration of supervision, content and protection of supervision time, and overall quality of supervision. The authors examined the views of respondents based on their most recent experience of supervision. Results: Almost all psychiatry trainees received regular, time-tabled supervision, and a majority went into supervision sessions with a preset agenda. Clinical case discussion was found to be the mainstay of the supervision session as reported by 94.7% of the respondents. One-third of the trainees used the supervision sessions to seek guidance regarding teaching medical students. They also sought advice on preparation for academic presentations in addition to developing administrative and management skills. A majority of trainees received personal and careers guidance and regular feedback on their performance. The average score for the overall quality of supervision was 7.88 out of 10. Conclusion: Supervision remains a unique learning experience for the psychiatry trainees. This study indicates that trainee psychiatrists want regular supervision sessions for discussion about various training issues. Educational supervision should be seen as an essential element in psychiatry training and assessed as part of the quality assurance monitoring of psychiatry training schemes.