Number of beds and residency programs

[MixerDO]

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I'm still in the process of researching programs to apply to for my residency ap, I've noticed some places seem to have what I assume are a really low number of psychiatry beds. One program in particular I saw has ~30 beds, is that pretty low? Are there a certain number of beds that would be considered too few or too many?

 

[wolfvgang22]

I dunno. My program had nearly 200 beds.

 

[heyjack70]

30 beds takes probably 3-4 academic attendings To cover. Intern year has 6 months of inpatient psych and 6 of med/neuro. I think you could have 3-4 residents per year on a unit that size but it would be at capacity for teaching I think. These are justh educated guesses. I would not say that 30 beds is inherently too small. Especially if it is the only psych unit around so you catch all the serious pathology. If the university psych unit is across town you will probably miss out.

 

[Merovinge]

Both my medical school and residency were roughly 30 beds in size. I think the main question is what psychopathology will you attract, which is more based on the city then bed number, as on inpatient unit you shouldnt be carrying more than 10ish patients. My medical school had a fairly constricted range of psychopathyology, my residency was diverse and captured Zebra's due to the sub specialists. Total bed number is probably a better indicator of how crazy call will be then what inpatient rotations will look like.

 

[hamstergang]

At my program, we rotated through 3 inpatient units, none of which had more than 30 beds. As mentioned, we only carry a portion of those patients so it's not like I didn't have enough patients to see. Each unit did have a diversity of patients, too, though each had their own feel as well.

 

[Bartelby]

The number of beds does not matter. The number of patients you cover while rotating on inpatient wards, the number of patients you cross-cover, and the types of patients who fill those beds all matter. Those things depend on how the program divides up what is available much more than the total number of available beds.

 

[digitlnoize]

I would also ask how many patients you cover during PGY-3 (or outpatient). At my program we covered 200-250 patients each during PGY-3, which I'm told is a metric f**kton compared to other places. Also, how many outpatient encounters per month would be good to know. I did around 150 in June, which isn't much for private practice, but for academics (with all the associated "meaningful use"/EMR clicking and documenting you have to do) it's a lot.