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Introduction
The Psychiatry Residency Program is
a fully accredited program leading to eligibility for certification
by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Applications
are taken through the AAMC's
Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS), and all
positions are filled through the National Residency Matching
Program or through pre-match contract offers.
The
Department of Psychiatry also has training programs for art therapy
students, clinical psychology students, and psychology interns,
which increases opportunities available for psychiatry residents
during their training.
General Description
The four-year residency training
program in general psychiatry exposes residents to all aspects of
the practice of psychiatry. The training sites provide a variety of
experiences, as well as a very broadly mixed population base. Sentara
Norfolk General Hospital is a Level I trauma center, which has a
psychiatric inpatient unit and active psychiatric consultation
service. The Veterans' Affairs Medical Center in Hampton is a Dean's Committee
hospital with excellent psychiatric experience provided on the inpatient unit,
on the geriatric psychiatry service, the emergency department, the Mental
Health Clinic, and the neurology service. Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg
is the oldest public mental health hospital in America; it provides experience in
forensic psychiatry. The Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth is the oldest operating
naval hospital in America, and offers our residents training in child psychiatry
and group psychotherapy. Local community mental health centers provide experience
in managing a wide variety of child and adolescent outpatients in the public sector.
These diverse experiences provide well-rounded training for providing psychiatric
care into the new millennium.
Curriculum
The first year
of residency consists of six months of inpatient psychiatry, two
months of neurology, and four months of internal medicine. The second
year consists of four three-month rotations in
inpatient psychiatry, consult/liaison psychiatry, and emergency
psychiatry, plus a two-month rotation in child psychiatry and a
one-month elective rotation.
The entire third year is an
outpatient year. Third-year residents practice in the Veterans
Affairs Medical Center outpatient clinic and the Department of
Psychiatry's outpatient clinic. The fourth year includes experience
as a senior resident on an inpatient service at one of the main
teaching hospitals, as well as rotations in geriatric psychiatry,
forensic psychiatry, substance abuse, and further elective
rotations. Each resident maintains his/her own long-term
psychotherapy cases throughout the residency. Managed care
experience, essential in today's practice of psychiatry, is also
part of our residents' training experience.
The program is aimed at developing
medical, psychiatric, diagnostic and therapeutic experience and
skills. Our approach is broadly based and emphasizes all three
segments of the biopsychosocial model. Special attention is given to
analytic theory in modern psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy.
Neurobiology and psychopharmacology are emphasized daily during
rotations as well as in didactics. Pertinent contributions from
other behavioral disciplines and the social sciences are also
included, such as a strong didactic and clinical experience in group
therapy, family therapy and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. Formal individual and group
supervision are provided by the service chiefs, training directors,
qualified members of the professional staff, and part-time faculty
consultants. At least two to three hours of supervisory time per
week are provided, with additional time as needed. Each resident is expected to be
involved in some form of psychiatric research.
The resident may choose to be involved in an ongoing department
project, or may choose to pursue his/her own original ideas. Support is available through psychiatric supervisors and research
assistants, as well as by our research coordinator, who holds a
doctoral degree in education.
There are over 100 departmental and community faculty members.
Clinical training is supplemented by departmental Grand Rounds, an
ongoing lecture series, ward rounds, workshops, and clinical
conferences at each site, and by the strong support from faculty and
from the program director, and the advantages of working within a
major academic setting which is actively growing. Resident life is
enhanced by reasonable call schedules, scheduled social activities
and retreats, all of which promote a feeling of
camaraderie among residents. The EVMS Psychiatry Residency is truly
an exceptional program in which to train.
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