Psychopharmacology curriculum field test.
OBJECTIVE
As part of an effort to improve psychopharmacology training in psychiatric residency programs, a committee of residency training directors and associate directors adapted an introductory schizophrenia presentation from the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology's Model Psychopharmacology Curriculum to develop a multimodal, interactive training module. This article describes the module, its development, and the results of a field trial to test its feasibility and usefulness.


METHODS
Nineteen residency programs volunteered to use the module during the first half of the 2007-2008 academic year. Evaluation consisted of a structured phone interview with the training director or teaching faculty of participating programs during February and early March 2008, asking whether and how they used the curriculum, which components they found most useful, and how it was received by faculty and residents.


RESULTS
Of the 19 programs, 14 used the module and 13 participated in the evaluation. The most commonly used components were the pre- and postmodule questions, video-enhanced presentation, standard presentation, problem- or team-based teaching module, and other problem-based teaching modules. No two programs used the module in the same fashion, but it was well received by instructors and residents regardless of use.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this field trial suggest that a dynamic, adult-centered curriculum that is exciting, innovative, and informative enough for a wide variety of programs can be developed; however, the development and programmatic barriers require considerable time and effort to overcome.
Zisook
Sidney
S
Department of Psychiatry at University of California, 0603-R, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093-0603, USA. szisook@ucsd.edu
Balon
Richard
R
Benjamin
Sheldon
S
Beresin
Eugene
E
Goldberg
David A
DA
Jibson
Michael D
MD
Thrall
Grace
G
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D003479:Curriculum; D004493:Education; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007396:Internship and Residency; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D011600:Psychopharmacology / Q000193:education*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy; D014741:Video Recording