The role and function of residents' organizations in psychiatry education.

Psychiatry residents' organizations have been poorly studied and variously portrayed as facilitative or regressive. A telephone survey of 19 residency programs of differing sizes in all major geographic regions revealed that 89% had some form of residents' organization. The groups are characterized by a wide range of structures, and they undertake a variety of tasks. The most common tasks are support, problem solving, and venting dissatisfaction. Problems frequently faced by such groups include changing resident constituencies, personality conflicts, authorization disputes, and representation and consensus problems. Strengths of such groups include their ability to help foster a sense of group identity; to provide a safe place to ventilate, work on problems, and fashion a consensus for the residents' input to the institution; and to offer training opportunities f or future psychiatric managers.