Forensic psychiatry fellowship training: developmental stages as an educational framework.

As an official subspecialty of psychiatry, forensic psychiatry residency training must meet the requirements established by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education. Attendant to these requirements is the expectation that graduates demonstrate core competencies in general areas common to all medical training programs but delineated for each specialty. In forensic psychiatry, trainees must learn to move from the role of healer to objective evaluator on behalf of third parties, a task that differs from general medical care and treatment. Thus, it is important for educators to maintain awareness of the experience of trainees as they adapt to forensic psychiatry, while understanding core competency requirements. This article outlines stages of development of forensic psychiatry fellows as a model for characterizing learning objectives and for supervising trainees in forensic psychiatry fellowship programs. These stages of development include (1) transformation, (2) growth of confidence and adaptation, and (3) identification and realization. Training directors and trainees can utilize this theoretical framework as a basis on which to establish parameters for core competency attainment and supervisory and assessment methods for forensic psychiatry training.