GENERAL COMPETENCIES ADDENDUM (FOR PROGRAM INFORMATION FORM)
Southern Illinois University Program - PSYCHIATRY
General Competency Assessment Data Summary
Date Last Updated: 7/29/2004
SECTION 1.a: EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE GENERAL COMPETENCIES
Competency
Educational Activities
Practice-Based
Learning &
Improvement
All residents participate in a monthly journal club that has an evidence based focus. Each resident presents a Grand Rounds at least once
each year focused on a case drawn from their clinical experiences and ratings of these presentations become part of the residents’ files.
Residents have access to MD Consults and Web-CT as well as several options for Internet access including online electronic journals,
books, and databases that can be searched via the institutional medical library. PGY-3 and PGY-4 residents participate in a mentoring
program for medical students during clerkships, spending at least half an hour with them each week. PGY-3 residents participate in a
continuous quality improvement project in the outpatient department directed toward some component of the population that they serve.
This project is then presented to a multidisciplinary quality committee to provide teaching and to help implement the study
recommendations.
Interpersonal &
Communication Skills
Residents have daily opportunities to practice and improve interpersonal and communication skills via interactions with patients, patient
families, and staff. PGY-2, 3, and 4 resident videotape outpatient encounters (3-4 hours weekly) which are subsequently reviewed by
psychotherapy supervisors and clinical supervisors with feedback given to residents regarding interpersonal and communication skills.
Clinic notes for PGY-2, 3, and 4 residents and inpatient progress notes for PGY-1 and PGY-2 residents are reviewed regularly by the
attending supervisor with feedback given to residents regarding format, content, grammar, and comprehensiveness. While rotating on an
inpatient state operated facility and during a 2.5 month community psychiatry rotation, PGY-2 residents participate as the physician leader
of a inpatient multidisciplinary team and of an assertive community treatment team that works with the chronically and severely mentally
ill.
Professionalism
Residents have the opportunity to participate on the hospital ethics committee and the resident didactic curriculum includes conferences
on medical ethics and medical law, and lectures on professionalism and communication. Faculty model professional behavior. Nursing
staff and attending supervisors through direct observation at the end of each inpatient rotation evaluate professionalism. In addition,
faculty review videotapes of patient encounters to assess for professionalism, adherence to ethical principles, sensitivity, and boundary
management. Review of resident progress or problems in professionalism occurs through semi-annual face to face meetings with the
program director.
Systems-Based
Practice
The residents participate in courses on systems of care (PGY-2), administrative psychiatry (PGY-3) and practice management (PGY-4).
They are exposed to cost-effective treatment and taught proper billing and coding methods. Residents talk with insurance companies
regarding utilization review and pre-certification for their patients. Case discussions give residents daily opportunities to discuss costeffective healthcare in all settings. Residents are evaluated on their competency in systems-based practice at the end of each rotation by
attending supervisors. During their second year clinical examination, they are evaluated on their ability to present and discuss a case
cogently to a mock insurance reviewer to assess their ability to advocate for appropriate healthcare for their patients. Residents
participate in a quality improvement research project involving data from patient populations similar to those seen by the resident during
their tenure on which they are then evaluated.
Southern Illinois University Program
General Competency Assessment Data Summary
SECTION 1.b: IMPROVING INSTRUCTION FOR THE GENERAL COMPETENCIES
Improvement
Competency
Institutional
Conferences,
Lectures, or
Discussions

Institutional
Conferences,
Lectures, or
Discussions

SystemsBased Practice
Patient
Care
Comments
In PGY-2, residents receive an 8 session lecture series on the U.S. health system and the place of mental health in
that system. It is coordinated with a 5 session series on administrative (managed care ) psychiatry given in PGY-3. In
PGY-3 residents are being assigned to perform a CQI project in our outpatient department to get first-hand
experience at the challenges involved in improvement of care issues. In PGY-4 the residents get more detailed
training in personnel management, health care law as it applies to systems of care, and ethical issues in developing
systems of care. We will be watching on clinical rotations to see if residents are able to transition this knowledge to
clinical settings.
Previously this program rated residents as progressing satisfactorily in psychotherapy if they were competent in some
area. We have now defined criteria in each of 5 areas of specific psychotherapy skills (supportive, cognitive behavior,
psychodynamic, brief, and combined psychotherapy/psychothpharmacology). We are utilizing a portfolio system to
document the work the resident is doing, a series of structured readings to be discussed with supervisors, a revised
seminar schedule, and presentations of their work to supervisors. This has required a major restructuring of how we
evaluate residents in this area and how we provide supervision.