In 1970, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology eliminated the internship as a requirement for certification in psychiatry. This study compared the work on a psychiatric inpatient service of internship-trained first-year residents with that of a matched group of residents who entered the same program without an internship.
A chart review comparison disclosed differences in patient care practices in the areas of length of stay, writing of progress notes, and use of the laboratory and medical consultants. Staff ratings of the residents were found to differ significantly in four of five measured categories.