Filling the need for emergency psychiatrists: is better education the answer?

Although the need for specialists in emergency psychiatry is increasing, little attention is given to this field by American psychiatric residency programs, and few psychiatrists choose emergency psychiatry as a career. Like their American counterparts, few Canadian psychiatric residents also choose this specialty. To determine Canadian patterns of emergency education and Canadian residents' opinions of their emergency psychiatry experience, the authors distributed a 41-item questionnaire to 190 psychiatric residents across Canada. The results showed that most residents worked long hours alone, with little complementary education or evaluation. Residents in programs with formal education and evaluation components and on-call assignments no more than once a week found the emergency psychiatry experience most rewarding. The authors make a series of recommendations to strengthen the educational aspects of the emergency psychiatry experience.