Residency Program in Psychiatry

Didactics

PGY-I

Daniel Stewart, M.D.

Course Goals and Objectives

The overall goal of the two-week Introduction to Psychiatry Crash Course and the year long PGY-I Curriculum is to provide beginning residents with a solid practical foundation in basic psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Residents receive a comprehensive orientation to the psychiatry department, especially the inpatient service. Roles, responsibilities, and professionalism involving patient care, multidisciplinary staff interaction and medical student teaching are reinforced. All of the major psychiatric syndromes and medication classes as well as basic safety and basic emergency psychiatry are covered. The main objective is to impart the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed by beginning residents in order to progress in their psychiatric training. Core Competencies are measured by Inpatient Rotation and Night Float Evaluations, mock-board oral examinations, and formal case presentations.

Introduction to Psychiatry

During orientation, all PGY-I residents attend a crash course in psychiatry, consisting of lectures and seminars designed to get new residents up and running. This lecture series is taught by chief residents and faculty and includes the following:

• Hospital and Departmental Policies, Procedures, Rules and Regulations
• Psychiatric Admission and the On-Call Experience
• Mental Status Examination and Psychiatric Interview
• Managing Acute Agitation and Psychosis
• Substance Abuse and Withdrawal
• Evaluation and Management of Suicidal Patients
• Delirium, Dementia and the Mini-Mental Status Examination
• Neurological Examination and Emergencies
• Managing Medical Emergencies

Case Conferences

All inpatient residents participate in two separate case conferences each week. One focuses on interviewing and case formulation, led by Asher Simon, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Medical Director of the Continuing Day Treatment Program at Mount Sinai, and winner of multiple educational awards. A second case conference is run by Peter Dunn, M.D., Director for Clinical Services, New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, focusing on psychodynamic perspectives on patient's psychiatric presentations.

Didactic Curriculum

The didactic curriculum occurs for two hours each Monday afternoon and now spans the entire year, with protected time for all PGY-Is including while on Medicine and Neurology. The overall goals of the PGY-I curriculum is to expose residents to the major diagnostic entities that present for inpatient treatment at psychiatric hospitals. Residents are given a basic understanding of the presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of these disorders. The course is organized into the following themes: Nosology and Psychopharmacology, Introduction to Psychotherapy, Being a Resident, Neuroscience, and Evidence-based Medicine. These classes alternate on a biweekly basis with a year-long Interviewing Class designed to help residents develop psychiatric interviewing skills. This includes enhancing skill in history-taking, nondirective interviewing, the psychiatric review of symptoms, the mental status examination, differential diagnosis, case formulation, and case presentation.