Today's Resident — Tomorrow's Psychiatrist *

A survey of 201 Psychiatry residents in Canada was conducted to obtain the opinions of today's residents on a number of controversial issues which may reflect their development as tomorrow's psychiatrist. Generally, this group of residents felt that an internship and training in Neurology and Internal Medicine should be a requirement for residents. Research, psychoanalysis and personal therapy were seen as non-essential assets to the training of a psychiatrist. These residents also showed a definite willingness to learn about the treatment of the seriously mentally ill and the chronic patient by making a rotation in a mental hospital a requirement during their training. The majority felt strongly that their professional identity was primarily that of a physician and were most supportive of a biopsychosocial model as basic to both practice and research in Psychiatry. They acknowledged that role diffusion was a problem in Psychiatry. They saw themselves as different from psychologists, social workers and psychiatric nurses in their ability to develop a differential diagnosis, to arrive at a diagnosis, to prescribe chemotherapy, to decide the necessity for admission, to act as therapeutic team leaders and bear the final medicolegal responsibility. Practising psychotherapy was not seen as a differentiating factor. These results would seem to indicate that most of these future psychiatrists are developing their interest in a direction compatible with the predictions of educators who see tomorrow's psychiatrist as more of a psychobi-ologist. Their role definition is very much in keeping with the recommendations of administrators in view of the manpower shortage. However, before rejoicing at this apparent trend one must remember that once out of training psychiatrists may drift towards endeavours that are more rewarding ideologically and financially. Fee schedules and working environments need to be changed in order to support this change in focus. Another concern is that this direction may weaken the psychological basis of our profession.