Department of Psychiatry

Didactics
Residents are excused from their clinical duties on Wednesday afternoons to attend didactics. Residents meet in the department for lunch from 12-1 PM and are scheduled for didactics from 1-5 PM. Didactics are interactive and involve multiple formats including case-based conferences, videotaped interviews, psychotherapy material, literature and film discussions and telemedicine courses. Didactics are organized to expose residents to all areas of psychiatry over the course of residency. Residents are involved in planning the schedule and senior residents may elect to teach selected topics.

Grand Rounds and Peer Review
The Grand Rounds schedule includes guest speakers providing the latest information on a wide range of topics. These lectures, held from 1-2 PM on Wednesdays, alternate with Resident Peer Reviews in which PGY-II residents select a patient case for presentation with a faculty discussant. Evidence-based approaches to the clinical problem being presented are discussed with ample time for audience participation.

Journal Club, Literature Seminars and Movie Days
Journal Club and Literature Seminars are held monthly as part of the regular didactics series on Wednesday afternoons. A variety of journal articles are discussed with attention to research methodology and critical reading of the paper. Periodically, there are movie days in which residents view and discuss movies with significant mental health themes.

Medical Student Teaching
Medical students are an integral part of departmental activities. Residents actively teach students during clinical rotations, in small group seminars and in large lecture classes. Residents are involved in small group learning activities throughout the formal medical school curriculum.

Telemedicine
A variety of telemedicine activities take place in our department. These include outreach to patients in rural areas and in the prisons through telemedicine clinics, broadcasting of grand rounds and peer review to community mental health centers throughout the state and resident courses taught by expert teachers at distant sites. Our program received the Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education from the American College of Psychiatrists in 2002 for our excellence in telemedicine education.