Suicide Risk Assessment and Management Training Practices in Pediatric Residency Programs: A Nationwide Needs Assessment Survey.

PURPOSE: Youth suicide is a public health emergency, and its prevention is a national imperative. Pediatric providers are critical to risk assessment, triage, and intervention, yet little is known about the content, quality, and perceived adequacy of suicide prevention pediatric residency training. We thus sought to (1) characterize suicide risk assessment and management training practices in pediatric residency programs nationwide and (2) assess areas of training need to guide curricular development.
METHODS: An online nationwide needs assessment was distributed to all 204 pediatric residency program directors (PDs) and 494 pediatric chief residents (CRs) through the Association of Pediatric Program Directors listservs (May to June 2017). Descriptive statistics and comparisons between PDs and CRs are reported.
RESULTS: Ninety-five PDs and 210 CRs (47% and 43% response rate, respectively) completed the survey. Although 82% of respondents rated suicide prevention training in residency as "very" or "extremely" important, a minority (18% PDs and 10% CRs) reported adequate preparation relative to need. Formal training was not universal (66% PDs and 45% CRs) and practices varied across programs (PD median = 3 hours [interquartile range: 1-4.5 hours], CR median = 1.5 hours [interquartile range: 0-3 hours]). Top-ranked educational priorities included interviewing adolescents about risk, risk factor identification, and locating community resources. Training barriers included limited time, lack of training resources, and need for additional expert faculty to guide training.
CONCLUSIONS: PDs and CRs reported constraints to suicide prevention training for pediatric residents despite high perceived importance and need. Programs may benefit from explicit guidelines and standardized curricula that emphasize educational priorities, building on these findings.