American psychiatry for export: Special training for foreign medical graduates

The large number of foreign medical graduates who train for psychiatry in the United States requires refinement of principles which guide the appropriate training of such physicians. While most of these physicians prepare for careers in the United States, a few of them return to their home countries. A program is outlined in which psychiatrists from Indonesia are trained in Hawaii for the establishment and practice of child psychiatry in their home country. Planning philosophy, collaborative advance planning, and identification of crucial training issues, as well as the actual training in Hawaii, arc outlined. In the paper emphasis is placed on the relationship of training components which are structured to take account of both the basic body of knowledge for child psychiatry and the special social and cultural context in which it will be practiced. Efforts to monitor ongoing training experiences and to provide for evaluation are discussed. The paper also contains a description of cognitive and emotional experiences and changes of the candidates during the training period.