summary
background There is few information about the position of educational supervision and residents' experience in psychiatric training in the Netherlands.
aim Questionnaire survey to investigate the current practice of and satisfaction with educational supervision.
method Using existing literature and discussion between authors and experts a questionnaire was compiled assessing various relevant aspects of educational supervision. A random selection of both trainees and their supervisor(s) were asked to complete the postal questionnaires, anonymously en independently.
results Educational supervision comprises patient and resident centred supervision; both methods require a distinct amount of time, which is not always the case. One third of the residents states that all patients are discussed regularly and thirteen percent receives no live supervision at all. Over fifty percent pays attention to mutual appraisal apart from regular assessment. Overall satisfaction is good, although a substantial number of all respondents reports adverse experiences in psychiatric training. A minority supposes that there's some kind of regulation regarding prerequisites of supervisors. According to half of them a plan to update their educational skills is lacking. Supervisor evaluation by anonymous resident feedback is still an uncommon procedure.
conclusion Improvement of educational supervision by means of standardisation is proposed.