Supervision of psychiatric residents provides a natural context for cl
inical ethics teaching. In this article, the authors discuss the need
for ethics education in psychiatry residencies and describe how the sp
ecial attributes of supervision allow for optimal ethics training for
psychiatry residents in their everyday encounters with ethical problem
s. Ethical decision making in clinical settings is briefly reviewed, a
nd a 6-step strategy for clinical ethics training in psychiatric super
vision is outlined. The value of the clinical ethics supervisory strat
egy for teaching and patient care is illustrated through four case exa
mples.