Effects of training on suicide risk assessment.
OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated the impact of structured training in evidence-based risk assessment for suicide.


METHODS
Forty-five psychiatry and psychology trainees participated in a workshop on evidence-based risk assessment. A comparison group of ten psychiatry trainees participated in a different workshop on the application of evidence-based medicine to psychiatry that was not focused specifically on risk assessment. Before and after each workshop, participants rated their skills in assessing patients' risk of suicide and wrote progress notes regarding clinical vignettes that included the assessment of and plan regarding suicide risk. Researchers systematically rated the progress notes.


RESULTS
Participation in risk assessment training predicted improvement on specific indicators of documentation quality, ratings of the overall quality of documentation of suicide risk, and self-rated competence in suicide risk assessment.


CONCLUSIONS
Structured clinical training in evidence-based risk assessment can improve documentation of assessment and management of patients' risk of suicide.
McNiel
Dale E
DE
Departmento f Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, 401 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, CA 94143-0984, USA. dalem@lppi.ucsf.edu
Fordwood
Samantha R
SR
Weaver
Christopher M
CM
Chamberlain
John R
JR
Hall
Stephen E
SE
Binder
Renée L
RL
D002140:California; D004493:Education; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000193:education; D006801:Humans; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D011584:Psychology / Q000193:education*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D000092864:Suicide Prevention