2 - The liaison psychiatry curriculum

Summary

Chapter 1 describes how to assess patients in the general hospital and the basic competencies required to become a liaison psychiatrist. This chapter describes how those basic competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) are structured, particularly within the context of a training programme, and how they can be assessed. Much of the information in this chapter is modified from other sources, and is included for guidance and discussion only. The General Medical Council (GMC)-approved curriculum (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2010) should be consulted for definitive information. This chapter refers to training in the UK, particularly England and Wales, but will be of relevance to training programmes in other countries.

What is a curriculum?

The word curriculum is Latin, meaning a racing chariot, from which came a curricle, which is a course or race. From this is derived the modern word curriculum, which is a course of study rather than a race course. The GMC tell us that a curriculum is more than a syllabus – it is:

‘a statement of the intended aims and objectives, content, experiences, outcomes and processes of a programme, including a description of the structure [entry requirements, length and organisation of the programme including its flexibility, and assessment system] and an expected method of learning, teaching, feedback and supervision. The curriculum should set out what knowledge, skills and behaviours the trainee will achieve’ (General Medical Council, 2010).

Trainees in the UK, who wish to be on the GMC specialist register, must have been on a GMC-approved training programme, which in turn must follow an approved curriculum. The curriculum for liaison psychiatry was submitted by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2010) on behalf of the Faculty of Liaison Psychiatry and it is subject to continuous revision. The liaison curriculum describes competencies that need to be achieved in core and speciality training in order to acquire a Certificate of Completion of Training.