A language-cultural course for foreign psychiatric residents

Abstract

Foreign medical graduates are an important component of the health care system in the United States. All foreign medical graduates have acculturation problems, but they are especially aggravating among foreign psychiatric residents. These difficulties affect the personal lives of the foreign residents as well as crucial teacher-student and doctor-patient relationships. The authors report on an effort to further define these problems in a residency program and their systematic attempts to solve them by offering a special course. The program they describe benefitted not only the foreign residents but their families and the residency program itself.