Objective: With a rise in remote clinical practice related to the COVID-19 pandemic, a novel remote psychotherapy curriculum was presented to psychiatry residents and fellows to address the urgent need to teach trainees how to adapt traditional psychotherapy skills to telepsychiatry settings.
Methods: Trainees completed a survey before and after receiving the curriculum to assess remote psychotherapy skills and areas for growth.
Results: Eighteen trainees (24% fellows, 77% residents) completed the pre-curriculum survey, and 28 trainees (26% fellows, 74% residents) completed the post-curriculum survey. Thirty-five percent of pre-curriculum participants indicated no experience with remote psychotherapy. Technology (24%) and patient engagement (29%) were identified as the greatest challenges in providing teletherapy pre-curriculum. Content related to patient care (69%) and technology (31%) was of most interest to pre-curriculum participants and identified as most helpful post-curriculum (53% and 26%, respectively). After receiving the curriculum, most trainees planned to make internal, provider-related changes to their remote teletherapy practice.
Conclusions: The remote psychotherapy curriculum was well received by psychiatry trainees who had limited experience with remote clinical practice prior to the pandemic.
Keywords: Curriculum; Psychotherapy; Telehealth; Telepsychiatry; Virtual.
© 2023. This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply 2023.