Altogether there is an additional six months of inpatient psychiatry in the third year. The final year of residency includes a ten hour commitment of time for ongoing outpatient work that includes psychotherapy cases as well as the continuity of care for other patients. The remainder of the fourth year is elective with numerous opportunities available to the resident. The electives include chief residency and senior administrative opportunities, forensic psychiatry, substance abuse, consult liaison, community public sector psychiatry, additional psychotherapeutic training, neuropsychiatry, geriatric and child and adolescent psychiatry to name a few opportunities. Participation in a wide range of clinical and basic science research is also available.
Residents design their elective choices in collaboration with faculty advisors.
The call structure is supervised in all settings by senior faculty who are available to the resident and who actively participate with the resident in clinical decision making. We anticipate that beginning with the 1998-99 entering class, there will be call approximately twice a month in the third year. It should be noted that we consider call to be a significant learning experience and treat it as such by providing active faculty back up and supervision in helping residents learn to manage challenging crisis situations. The curriculum is designed for continuity year to year with an effort to integrate basic concepts of biological, psychodynamic and behavioral principles. In addition, residents are exposed to group and family systems theory as well as to the various treatment approaches and strategies targeting specific psychiatric syndromes and populations.