Residency in Psychiatry (RPS)

The changing environment of today's world requires that healthcare professionals have new and multiple skills. It also demands stricter quality in their performance. In the area of clinical psychiatry, there has been an enormous growth in diagnostic and therapeutic tools, with diagnostic criteria and therapeutic methods being continuously modified and renewed. Hence, it is important for professionals in the field to keep their medical education up-to-date and to teach the most relevant topics with the greatest impact on community health in the formation of human resources for the health sector. The multiple advances in the areas of molecular genetics, pharmacology, psychotherapeutic techniques and new technologies for diagnosis and treatment, as well as their clinical applications, must be rapidly used in patient treatment. To assure the profile of the graduate in this environment, topics have been incorporated that focus on the scientific method, promote medicine based on evidence, and develop in the student a culture of research and investigation. The topics of basic and advanced research structure the additional skills and knowledge, as do those of medical ethics. These are really tools that, together with the many others, strengthen the desired attitudes and values in the resident. Thus, the curriculum is based on four years covering these areas, as well as the theoretical, technological and practical knowledge of clinical studies, to ensure the comprehensive training of the Psychiatrist. With the innovation in educational techniques and procedures, an alternative solution that comes from the new educational model is learning centered on the student and on clinical patient cases, so that acquired knowledge may be applied directly to patients, being therefore a direct transfer to the reality of the environment, as well as an exercise in self-learning. This results in a continuous medical education that is closely linked to the development of the scientific and technological knowledge of the discipline. Finally, this methodology confirms the congruence between the basics, our educational model, the areas of training and the discipline itself. The particular characteristics of the residency require a diagnostic laboratory analysis and the development of new studies, technical progress and new knowledge resulting from research, so Psychiatrists in this educational environment are required to acquire theoretical knowledge in their area of specialty, in educational techniques and in research. This will help them to resolve in a comprehensive and satisfactory manner the diagnostic problems in the health of their patients, so that they may carry out professional work with a level of excellence in the areas of expertise mentioned previously (external consultation, hospitalization, community support, preventive education for the general population or for specific groups, distance medical attention via Internet, etc.).