Psychiatry Residency fourth Year?

[twospadz]

Just wondering how everyone else's fourth year residency schedule is. I feel like my program's is not chill at all. We have to do 2 months of Inpatient psych, 1 month ED psych, 1 month CL, and 1 month of child. Then 1 month research and 6 months outpatient. Our fourth year is more like second year. And I being whiny or do I have a point?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[adaptation1]

U Have Point!

 

[Sushirolls]

That's why MS-IV need to look at the rotations of a residency for all 4 years and know what they are signing up for with their rank lists. This can matter so much more then this arbitrary 'feel' and 'good fit' metric people apply.

The rotations, the number of each, and the quality of each matter.

 

[adaptation1]

Put it this way...my fourth year were all electives

 

[clausewitz2]

Put it this way...my fourth year were all electives

My fourth year is a harder schedule than my third year but it's entirely elective so is my own fault. Two different IOPs, a specialized psychotherapy clinic, ECT, TMS, one afternoon a week at a CMHC, epilepsy clinic, FEP clinic, psych ED...

Not a lick of call, though

 

[Celexa]

Just wondering how everyone else's fourth year residency schedule is. I feel like my program's is not chill at all. We have to do 2 months of Inpatient psych, 1 month ED psych, 1 month CL, and 1 month of child. Then 1 month research and 6 months outpatient. Our fourth year is more like second year. And I being whiny or do I have a point?

... If I'm reading this right you have ZERO elective time fourth year, unless you count the research month?

Yeah, you're getting hosed. My program has lots of elective time fourth year. The required things are all outpatient (clinics and therapy).

 

[twospadz]

... If I'm reading this right you have ZERO elective time fourth year, unless you count the research month?

Yeah, you're getting hosed. My program has lots of elective time fourth year. The required things are all outpatient (clinics and therapy).

Well we have 6 months of elective which most people opt for outpatient. But yea the required is the 2 months of Inpatient psych, 1 month ED psych, 1 month CL, 1 month of child and 1 month research. The only bright side I feel is that the program lets us moonlight externally for our 3rd and 4th year which Im making good money from. I guess my situation could be worse.

 

[hallowmann]

Well we have 6 months of elective which most people opt for outpatient. But yea the required is the 2 months of Inpatient psych, 1 month ED psych, 1 month CL, 1 month of child and 1 month research. The only bright side I feel is that the program lets us moonlight externally for our 3rd and 4th year which Im making good money from. I guess my situation could be worse.

If that's your 4th year schedule, then you probably had a lighter 1st and 2nd year. At my institution categorical 1st and 2nd years do almost entirely inpatient including on the units, child, CL, and EM. As a result most of 4th year is elective time.

 

[twospadz]

If that's your 4th year schedule, then you probably had a lighter 1st and 2nd year. At my institution categorical 1st and 2nd years do almost entirely inpatient including on the units, child, CL, and EM. As a result most of 4th year is elective time.

Not a lighter schedule. We do the same. In fact, by the end of second year we meet all of our ACGME requirements for 1st and second year. My program has a hard time recruiting attending and the hospital is very busy. So, by making 4th years do these rotations, this is their way of assisting the other doctors on inpatient, CL, EM, and child. We are basically labor to keep the hospital running. It stinks because 4th year is about finding niche fields in psychiatry that are much harder to explore and find once we graduate.

 

[hallowmann]

Not a lighter schedule. We do the same. In fact, by the end of second year we meet all of our ACGME requirements for 1st and second year. My program has a hard time recruiting attending and the hospital is very busy. So, by making 4th years do these rotations, this is their way of assisting the other doctors on inpatient, CL, EM, and child. We are basically labor to keep the hospital running. It stinks because 4th year is about finding niche fields in psychiatry that are much harder to explore and find once we graduate.

That sucks. They did the same thing to us for EM after adding a new unit. There's been grumbling of doing it on child as well, but we have enough fellows and people interested/on the track that that's not an issue yet. There's talk of developing a CL fellowship, so I'm hoping that won't be an issue as well.

I've seen other programs that spread the requirements out with more elective time in 2nd year and less in 4th.

It sucks that they have to force you into those rotations. If they didn't I'd imagine at least some people would be opting in with electives. Almost everyone in the categorical program does at least 1-2 electives on the inpatient unit and a lot of them also do an elective of CL, but it's the people who actually want to be there, so it's a better experience.

 

[NickNaylor]

Our fourth year was essentially all electives except for 2 months of C/L. The overwhelming majority of people did outpatient electives, though inpatient electives were available.

I took a job at the institution so I spent 8 of those months on the unit doing inpatient work and ECT stuff, but that was pretty unusual as far as fourth year schedules go. For most people here it's a pretty "chill" year. There's no call during PGY-4 in our program except when on C/L.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

The minimum requirements are:

2 months C&L
2 Months of Child (can double count)
12 months of outpatient (can double count a small portion)
6 months inpatient (used to be 9 months so many places do more than 6)
1 Geri
1 Psych ER
4 medicine
2 neuro
1 addiction
1 Forensic (not time defined but give it 1)
______________
32 months

Any more of these means less elective time. More than 4 extra months of anything and it would be hard to fast track.

 

[FatherPsychiatry]

Our fourth year is more like second year. And I being whiny or do I have a point?

Not being whiny. That sounds terrible because most programs I know have PGY4 mostly/entirely electives. So much that I'm questioning why psychiatry residency isn't 3 years. Agree with the poster above who said med students applying should ask how PGY4 is, instead of asking how terrible the 4 months of medicine intern year will be.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Not being whiny. That sounds terrible because most programs I know have PGY4 mostly/entirely electives. So much that I'm questioning why psychiatry residency isn't 3 years. Agree with the poster above who said med students applying should ask how PGY4 is, instead of asking how terrible the 4 months of medicine intern year will be.

I like this perspective because it turns your focus as an applicant to "What kind of psychiatrist will this program prepare me to be?" as opposed to "Will I survive my internship here?"