The PGY-IV core seminar is planned by the residents themselves, and typically includes mock oral examinations, a transition to practice seminar, negotiation training, hypnosis, and advanced topics of interest to the class. Residents regularly present at outpatient, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and neuropsychiatry case conferences. Chief residencies include meaningful clinical, administrative, and teaching responsibilities that provide a competitive advantage in the job market. Chief residents present a departmental case conference or grand rounds. UMass offers a wide variety of elective experiences in psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, neuropsychiatry, family therapy, geriatric psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, mental health administration, community psychiatry, HIV clinic, homeless outreach, child and adolescent psychiatry, psychiatric research, or domestic violence work.
Residents can also design their own electives in consultation with faculty.
PGY-IV residents can structure the outpatient work of the fourth year to complement an elective experience, or to gain experience in a particular subspecialty area. Residents may elect to begin a two-year fellowship in child psychiatry in their fourth year. Arrangements can also be made to do fellow level work in the Forensic Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatry, or Psychopharmacology programs. By the conclusion of the PGY-IV year, residents are independent practitioners with a mature approach to diagnosis, treatment selection, psychological and somatic therapies, and reading of the psychiatric literature.