Competency‐Based Psychiatry Residency Training Program Development in South Korea

Psychiatry residency training in South Korea currently has many limits in developing proper competencies of residents. To address this problem, the Korean Neuropsychiatric Association has been developing a new competency-based training program since 2015, using the educational systems of advanced countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia as references. It was found that within the referenced countries’ residency training systems, objectives based on competencies are stated in detail by psychiatric topics as well as various assessment methods and feedback about the resident’s competency level. In addition, we surveyed psychiatric resident training hospitals, and found that more than 80% of the respondents answered positively in reference to the new training program. This paper briefly reviews competency-based residency training systems of advanced countries and compares them to the current training program in South Korea. Many resources are needed to run a new competency-based training program, and governmental supports are essential to improve the quality of the residency training system.