DEVELOPING CLINICIAN-SCIENTISTS THROUGH INTEGRATED RESEARCH TRAINING IN PSYCHIATRY

Background: Economic pressures are directing psychiatrists' activities into less direct patient care and more clinical administrative and ev aluative roles. Practice restraints require greater precision in patie nt assessment and outcomes. With these changes, psychiatrists must dev elop lifetime professional habits and skills in research to adequately evaluate clinical work and provide leadership in quality care. Descri ption: This article describes steps for integrating research activitie s with residency training and provides an overview of the program stru cture that involves mentoring, training in basic research skills, a su pportive pathway, and clinical research opportunities for residents th roughout their training. Evaluation: Initial outcomes of our efforts a re promising with increased resident research involvement as well as t he stimulation of additional program development. Conclusions: Integra ting research into clinical training can minimize barriers to research activities and enhance the development of clinically relevant researc h skills.