Research methodologies to assess teaching in psychiatric residency: a literature review

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Research methodologies in psychiatry have followed both the changes in mental health care and the need of updating programs of medical residency. To identify empirical articles in the indexed literature from 1997 to 2002, with the aim of analyzing and discussing methodological aspects of research dealing with the description and assessment of residency programs in psychiatry. METHOD: The bibliographic survey was performed using MedLine, PsycLit, Web of Science, and Lilacs. Twenty-one articles were identified. RESULTS: Nineteen studies were characterized as exploratory-descriptive and two as experimental. Data collection used questionnaires in 12 of them, and combined techniques in the other seven and the two experimental studies had data collected by tests applied before and after the teaching intervention. Most of the subjects were residents and program directors. Fifteen studies used statistical analysis. CONCLUSIONS: All the articles outlined the problems based on literature reviews. Most of the studies made use of standard techniques of social research and only two used experimental procedures. Only three studies employed external measures in order to establish correlations with the collected data. Procedures to validate and assess the reliability of the instrument by means of pilot-studies were absent in 11 studies, what may indicate methodological biases.