Suicide risk assessment and management training practices in pediatric residency programs: A nationwide needs assessment survey
Open accessAbstract
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.
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Similar clinical pathways have been developed for adult populations.
“Similar pathways have been developed for adult populations.100”
From Evidence-based youth suicide prevention and intervention in pediatric primary care settings. (2024) · cites this paper as [100]
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Evidence-based youth suicide prevention and intervention in pediatric primary care settings.
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- Authors
- Schoen, L. E., Bogetz, A. L., Hom, M. A., & Bernert, R. A.
- Affiliations
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Florida State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Schoen, Lucy E.
- Venue
- Journal of Adolescent Health
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-08
- Volume
- 65
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 280-288
- ISSN
- 1054-139X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6650366
- OpenAlex
- W2945678197
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 2.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Adolescent Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Keywords
- youth suicide, suicide prevention, suicide risk assessment, suicide management, pediatric residency, medical curriculum, training needs assessment, chief residents, barriers to training
- MeSH terms
- Suicide Prevention, Adult, Child, Curriculum, Education, Medical, Graduate, Female, Humans, Internship and Residency, Male, Middle Aged, Pediatrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, United States, Risk Assessment, Needs Assessment
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