Organization of Postgraduate Courses In Psychiatry

EVER-INCREASING numbers of courses in psychiatry are being offered to the nonpsychiatrist physician. Interestingly, though, a relatively small number of physicians enroll in these courses. This reflects in part the fact that most physicians do not take postgraduate courses of any sort. Nevertheless, it poses a problem for those engaged in promoting the acquisition of psychiatric skills and knowledge by the family doctor.

At the University of Southern California, we have been concerned for some time with the problems of increasing the participation of practicing physicians in our courses and of giving participating physicians the maximum amount of useful information.¹ We have concluded that there are four important elements in organizing and administering postgraduate courses to achieve these two goals. These are: (1) clearly defined teaching objectives; (2) carefully designed course methods; (3) careful attention to the training of instructors and to maintaining their motivation; and (4)