Professionalism & Ethical Behavior

Outcome

By graduation, the residents will demonstrate the knowledge, attitude, and skills necessary to practice professionally responsible, ethical and culturally sensitive child and adolescent psychiatry. Residents are expected to exhibit progressive improvement in their level of knowledge and skill throughout their training. Methods of demonstration may include the care of patients/ families, participation in didactics and clinical conferences, presentations, or exams.

Knowledge

Definition

Residents must exhibit a commitment to being professionally responsible, adherent to ethical principles, and sensitive to a diverse patient population

Expectations

Residents will acquire and practice the ethical and professional standards and behavior compatible with the standards of child and adolescent psychiatry. Suggested topics (not inclusive) include:

  • AACAP and other professional codes of ethics
  • Institutional and governmental ethical and professional standards
  • Patient confidentiality and disclosure of information
  • Mandated reporting
  • Informed consent
  • Treatment consent and refusal
  • Commitment
  • Custody and guardianship
  • Rights of minors
  • Standards of treatment
  • Individual and societal/ community needs
  • Consent and assent in research
  • Competency
  • Professional relationships with pharmaceutical and other commercial organizations
  • Cultural and ethnical influences on development, psychiatric disorders and care, and family systems
  • Advocacy for individuals, families, children in general, and the field

Attitudes

Definition

Residents will display a consistent interest in the clinical, advocacy, and consultant roles and responsibilities of a child and adolescent psychiatrist

Expectations

Residents will demonstrate

  • Respect, compassion, responsibility, and integrity
  • Responsiveness to the needs of patients and society that supercedes self-interest
  • Accountability to patients, families, society, and the profession
  • Commitment to excellence and on-going professional development
  • Commitment to ethical principles
  • Sensitivity and responsiveness to patients' culture, ethnicity, age, gender, and disabilities

Skills

Definition

Residents will demonstrate

  • the roles and responsibilities of a child and adolescent psychiatrist
  • attitudes and behavior which are consistent with the professional and ethical standards of child and adolescent psychiatry
  • the ability to consider and manage the common and unique attributes of various groups based on their culture, ethic origin, gender, age, medical or psychiatric disabilities when providing clinical care to children, adolescents, and families

Expectations

Residents will

  • participate actively in clinical and didactic situations and local and national professional organizations displaying the characteristics of an ethical and responsible child and adolescent psychiatrist
  • be able to interact with professionals of diverse backgrounds to provide effective, culturally sensitive clinical care to children, adolescents, and families

Assessment/Measurement

Objective Measures

  • Regular documentation by clinical and teaching faculty of participation in didactic modules, case conferences, and other teaching sessions
  • Completion of CHILD PRITE annually with review of individual scores with the training director
  • Completion of essay exam annually with review with the training director

Supervision

  • Regular documentation of resident performance in areas relevant to professionalism by supervising outpatient and on-rotation faculty

Clinical Skill Evaluation

  • Direct observation of the individual resident's clinical and didactic activities by identified faculty
  • Observation and evaluation of videotaped patient interactions by supervisors and/ or teaching faculty on a regular basis
  • Annual clinical examination of “mock board” type
  • Biannual review of performance with training director

Independent Learning

  • Demonstration of self-initiated as well as directed study through leadership of discussions in both didactic and clinical activities and through presentations to the residency program in various formats (e.g. required papers; seminars; grand rounds; etc)

Deficiency Remediation

  • Regular review for each individual resident with the training director of the various measures of performance and competence with the
    • identification of any specific deficits
    • documentation of all identified areas requiring remediation or additional concentration
    • development of specific remediation plans based on the particular deficiencies identified
    • planning for further assessment with the outcome being determined by a method of assessment similar to the one used to identify the original deficiency (e.g. relative deficits identified on the CHILD PRITE might be subsequently reassessed by later performance on the CHILD PRITE or another written examination; deficits identified through the supervisory process might be reassessed by subsequent supervisory reports specifically targeted at assessing and remediating the identified deficits; etc)