The stress of patient suicidal behavior: Implications for interns and training programs in psychology.

Patient suicide and patient suicide attempts are frequently unexpected, sudden, and violent. They can have a significant emotional impact on the treating clinician, particularly if the clinician is still in a training status. An estimated 40% of psychology trainees have a patient suicide (11.3%) or a patient suicide attempt (29.1%) during their training years. A concept of systematic rsponse called psychological resynthesis (Resnick 1969) is proposed for psychology interns and training programs that must cope with the aftermath of a patient suicide or a serious patient suicide attempt.