Graduate Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series
LDFP Room 850 and virtually via Zoom
Certina Ho, RPh, BScPhm, MISt, MEd, PhD
Assistant Professor, Director, Educational Program Evaluation and Scholarship
Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto
Medication Safety Advisor, Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada (ISMP Canada)
Title: Training the Next Generation of Clinician Scholars: Understanding Psychiatry Residents’ Interests, Experiences, and Needs
Background: Little is known about how to best engage, train, and support psychiatry residents wishing to pursue academic careers as clinician scholars in the domains of education scholarship, quality improvement, medical humanities, social sciences, and creative professional activities. The Department’s Clinician Scholar Program (CScholP) was developed as a novel approach to enhance residents’ professional development in these domains.
Objective: To inform curriculum development, we conducted a mixed method needs assessment of residents and fellows in the 2021/22 academic year to understand their interests, experiences, and needs regarding the CScholP.
Methods: An online questionnaire was disseminated to all residents and fellows in the Department of Psychiatry. Virtual semi-structured interviews with selected survey respondents were conducted to expand on topics explored in the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were applied to quantitative and qualitative data, respectively.
Results: Of the 49 questionnaire respondents (21.4% response rate) and 17 interviewees, the majority were in PGY1-3. From the questionnaire, 73.5% were interested in pursuing research/scholarship in one or more CScholP domains during residency and 67.3% wished to incorporate this into future independent practice. The questionnaire identified time constraints as the primary barrier to participation in research/scholarship during residency. Interviewees described protected time and flexibility in schedules as methods to overcome this barrier. Key perceived enablers to participation included financial and social network support.
Conclusion: Our needs assessment highlighted important considerations in curriculum development and mentorship to support developing clinician scholars in psychiatry moving forward.