There has been national concern regarding the decreasing number of U.S.
medical students entering psychiatric residency training programs in the
1970s at the same time that the Graduate Medical Education National
Advisory Committee (GMENAC) report designated psychiatry as one of only
three medical specialties with a manpower shortage. The authors document
the decline in psychiatric residents in state mental hospitals from 1975 to
1980 and analyze five possible explanations for this absolute and relative
decrease. They discuss approaches to altering the situation as well as the
emerging role of the state mental hospital in the future training of
psychiatric residents.
Abstract Teaser