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Although health professionals increasingly are expected to be able to assess and manage patients’ risk for suicide, few methods are available to evaluate this competency. This report describes development of a competency-assessment instrument for suicide risk-assessment (CAI—S), and evaluates its use in an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).

The authors developed the CAI—S on the basis of the literature on suicide risk-assessment and management, and consultation with faculty focus groups from three sites in a large academic psychiatry department. The CAI—S structures faculty ratings regarding interviewing and data collection, case formulation and presentation, treatment-planning, and documentation. To evaluate the CAI—S, 31 faculty members used it to rate the performance of 31 learners (26 psychiatric …