In an effort to help psychiatrists prepare for Part II of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) certification exam, APA and McLean Hospital cosponsored a day-long board review course at the APA annual meeting in May in Chicago.

The course, which focused on "the orals," as they are more commonly known, featured videotapes of patient interviews and lectures on differential diagnosis, psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and neurology. The course was offered to APA members at a nominal fee of $25.

APA developed the initiative to improve pass rates for psychiatrists taking Part II of the ABPN exam. APA Deputy Medical Director James Thompson, M.D., M.P.H., and Medical Director Steven Mirin, M.D., worked closely to develop the curriculum with Michael Henry, M.D., director of the department of postgraduate and continuing education at McLean Hospital, and Bruce Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., president and psychiatrist in chief at McLean.

The target audience for the new course included residents, fellows, early career psychiatrists, and international medical graduates (IMGs).

A total of 263 psychiatrists attended the course, with 94 percent of the registrants identified as APA members. Nearly 59 percent of the participants identified themselves as IMGs.

Feedback from attendees was mostly positive. Participant evaluations showed that 92 percent agreed that the course helped them prepare for the ABPN exam, and more than 62 percent of respondents strongly agreed that they would like to see more courses of this type. "It was a well-prepared course," wrote one attendee. "Makes preparation for exams less overwhelming."

Other feedback included requests for increased focus on the patient-interview portion. "Much of the course could be based on videotape interviews," suggested another enrollee. "Unfortunately, most of us don’t have any other opportunity to observe good interviews and then critique the interview, or learn about all of the major topics involved."

Thompson said that the course will be held again next year and that there will be more information presented on the patient interview, as participants requested.

"APA is dedicated to working with our members to help them with the Board exams," he noted. "This was an experiment that appears to have been successful, and we will be looking for other ways to help such as Web-based programs."

Mirin agreed, adding that APA already has a number of products and services to assist members prepare for the board exams. "We publish a popular self-assessment exam and have other courses at the annual meeting intended to help with the board exams. In addition, APA publishes a number of books, practice guidelines, and DSM-IV-related publications that are, in part, intended for this purpose. More importantly, we are committed to helping out members pass the boards, and this is one more step in that direction."

Speaking for McLean, both Henry and Cohen expressed pleasure with the success of the course this year.

"We found that working with APA on a new Part II course was an exceptional merging of talents and opportunity," said Henry. "We had the experience and the faculty, and APA had the infrastructure and the annual meeting to work with. We’re looking forward to serving even more APA members with this course next year in New Orleans," he indicated.

Cohen also expressed his appreciation to the faculty who participated in the course. "We have a dedicated and talented group of teachers who were eager to participate in this initiative," he said. "I’m very pleased that the reviews were good, and I know they will work hard to make next year’s course even better."