ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The in-training examination (Performance Examination, PE) for psychiatric residents in Korea was launched 5 years ago by the Korean Neuropsychiatric Association (KNPA). This article analyzes 5-year accumulated data on the PE, and tries to make some suggestions for further development of the PE. METHODS: The 5-year data, previously utilized for the generation of formal annual reports were reanalyzed, with an emphasis on longitudinal trends. RESULTS: The analyses indicated the following; 1) Higher-year residents earned definitely higher scores than their lower-year colleagues on the PE. This trend was especially prominent in the area of psychopharmacology-biological psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and the emergency-organic psychiatry. There was no year-related performance difference in the area of psychoses. 2) In the area of anxiety-somatization disorder, psychophysiological disorder, and geriatric psychiatry, the residents in the university-affiliated hospitals outperformed those in the specialized psychiatric hospitals. 3) Through analyzing multiple-times examinees, it was found that their first-and second-time performances were moderately correlated, and that their ranks tended to improve, demonstrating a continuously improving performance according to the training year. CONCLUSION: These result suggested that the KNPA PE is a feasible measure for the estimation of an individual resident's performance as well as the adequacy of the environment provided by the training institutes.