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Administration of ECT by trainee psychiatrists

An audit of supervision, adequacy of tuition and attitudes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jonathan Hillam*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, Pond St, London NW3
Amanda Thompsell
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital
Robert Tobiansky
Affiliation:
Department of Old Age Psychiatry, Colindale Hospital, London NW9
*
Correspondence
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Abstract

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There has been increasing concern in recent years that trainee psychiatrists are not receiving adequate training and are not fully competent in the administration of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). This has led to the publication of guidelines by the Royal College of Psychiatrists recommending measures to improve supervision and tuition. This study compares the results of two surveys, five years apart, exploring levels of supervision, satisfaction with training and confidence in the procedure among trainee psychiatrists on the Royal Free Hospital scheme. The findings are discussed in the light of Improvements to teaching of ECT in the interim. Continuing problems with supervision are highlighted, and the need for organised training is emphasised.

Type
Audit
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

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