Am J Psychiatry 1976; 133:1079-1081
Copyright © 1976 by American Psychiatric Association
Attitude of psychiatric residents toward patient requests
S Eisenthal, R Ferrell and A Lazare
The authors assessed residents' comfort in dealing with 14 previously
identified types of patient requests in inpatient, outpatient, and acute
service settings. First-year residents expressed significantly more
discomfort than more experienced residents on 11 categories. They were also
significantly less comfortable in the acute service than the inpatient
setting. All residents expressed more comfort dealing with dynamic,
psychological, and "nonsevere" requests. These findings suggest a need to
teach residents specific therapeutic responses to various categories of
requests and to evaluate the desirability of starting the residency
experience on an acute service.
