On-Call Teaching and Education

Most psychiatry supervisors will have to provide supervision for residents in the emergency department at some point in their careers, despite receiving limited training as a supervisor. This also applies to the supervision of residents caring for geriatric patients with psychiatric problems, raising unique challenges inherent in this educational and clinical setting. The following chapter reviews the literature on supervisor competencies and applies these findings to a case scenario where a psychiatry resident in the emergency department faces challenges in the management of a complicated geriatric patient with mental illness. This chapter also acknowledges the competency-based medical education (CBME) framework, which identifies emerging competencies expected of North American psychiatry residents pertaining to geriatric psychiatry. Finally, specific and practical teaching strategies relevant to the emergency department are highlighted.