Specific Goals and Objectives
Year 1
General Competencies
Residents must demonstrate increasing knowledge, skills and attitudes in the six core competencies including patient care, medical knowledge, interpersonal and communication skills, practice-based learning and improvement, professionalism, and system-based practice. These competencies for child and adolescent psychiatry are outlined in the Evaluation Manual.
Knowledge
In year 1, the resident must demonstrate increasing knowledge in the following areas:
- Normal and abnormal development from early childhood through adolescence into adulthood
- Psychopathology for children, adolescents, and families, including all diagnoses defined in DSM IV
- Methods of evaluating children and their families, using various interviewing techniques including structured interviews and tasks, psychological testing, rating forms, and laboratory studies
- Knowledge of the full range of therapeutic interventions including, time-limited and long-term individual psychotherapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, supportive therapy, crisis intervention, family therapy group therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy, pharmacotherapy, and combined psychotherapy and psychopharmacology as well as indications for their use
- The role and function of consultants to pediatricians, schools, community systems of care, to include the knowledge of psychiatric symptomatology that may be associated with pediatric illness, learning disabilities, and social upheaval
- The basic information presented in the first year didactics as outlined in the course goals and objectives. Additionally, residents are expected to pursue specific knowledge related to children and families they are caring for
- Principles of cultural difference
- Importance of religion and spirituality in human life
- Principles of psychiatric ethics
- Knowledge of the systems that may be brought to bear on the daily life of the child and family, including schools, courts, social service agencies, church, and city and state agencies
- Basic principles of research and review of scientific articles. This may include the opportunity to participate in ongoing basic or clinical research efforts
- Neurologic disorders and the interface of pediatric neurology with child and adolescent psychiatry
- Recognize the need for life-long learning through continuing education
Skills
In year 1, the resident must demonstrate increasing skill in each of the following areas:
- Ability to develop and maintain a healthy alliance with both the child or adolescent an the parent, based on respect, honesty and empathy
- Ability to complete diagnostic assessments of children, adolescents, and families, to include wide differential diagnoses, multidimensional formulations, and treatment plans, including appropriate use of psychological testing, rating forms, specialized interviewing paradigms, structured interviews, and laboratory testing
- Ability to communicate clearly and respectfully to the child and family the results of your assessment and possible treatment options, to include possible risks and benefits of proposed treatments, as well as education regarding the disorder, its prognosis and techniques for amelioration or prevention
- Ability to access the scientific literature to aid in the consideration of evidence-based treatment and the rational use of this information in the context of a particular child and family and illness
- Ability to access and use a variety of systems of care in the treatment planning
- Ability to assess children, adolescents and families in a variety of environments including the outpatient clinic, subspecialty clinics, and residential school (inpatient setting)
- Ability to evaluate and treat children and adolescents of various ages and family constellations from different cultures, races, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds
- Ability to evaluate children and adolescents for safety toward self and others, including appropriate documentation and treatment recommendations
- Ability to conduct a range of therapies, including time-limited and long-term individual psychotherapy, psychodynamic, group, family, and supportive psychotherapy, crisis intervention, pharmacotherapy, and combined psychotherapy and psychopharmacology
- Ability to function as the psychiatric consultant to other mental health providers for their patients for whom they are considering pharmacotherapy
- Ability to provide effective and appropriate consultation to pediatricians, schools
- Ability to assess emergency situations in a range of settings, including pediatric inpatient unit, outpatient psychiatry clinic, and the residential school setting
- Ability to supervise the assessment of a child or adolescent by a general resident in the pediatric emergency room for completeness, differential diagnosis, safety evaluation, and then supervise the resident for appropriate disposition recommendations
- Develop a systematic approach for improving their fund of knowledge and clinical practices relevant to child and adolescent psychiatry
- Assess caseload and practice experience in a systematic way, which may occur by review of patient logs, active participation in the program evaluation, obtaining supervision to assure maximum educational experience, review patient records and outcomes
Attitudes
In Year 1, the resident must demonstrate the following attitudes:
- Desire to increase medical and psychiatric knowledge based on current literature and standards of practice, which, when read critically, may be applied to one’s patients
- Interest in seeking appropriate supervision regarding patient care, which would include the willingness to be self-observant of one’s own biases and emotional reactions
- Desire to maintain the highest standards of ethical and professional behavior in the care of patients,
- Desire to actively participate in didactic courses and case conferences through preparation, active listening and offering relevant comments and appropriate scientific literature
- The overall attitude of respect, honesty, and development of empathy toward patients and for those with whom one works
- A willingness to act as the patient and family’s advocate as indicated, especially as the child’s advocate for safety and respect at all times
- An expectation that care of children, adolescents and families must involve collaboration with other professionals in multiple systems in order to enhance a patient’s situation, to include geographically close services and ongoing access to care
- Understanding that children and adolescents are best served in the least restrictive environment, both for psychiatric services and in the school setting
- Maintain an attitude of inquiry and scholarship, recognizing the need for lifelong learning
- Understanding that care should be cost-effective without compromising quality.