Description of the PGY Years
CATEGORICAL PGY-I
We offer seven PGY-I positions and expect that trainees will
spend four years of residency with us. The Categorical Program provides
the PGY-I trainees with an initial exposure both to psychiatry and to
primary care. The year is divided into approximately seven months of
psychiatry and five months of medical rotations. The psychiatric portion
of the year consists of four months of Inpatient Psychiatry, two months
of Emergency Psychiatry, and one month of training in substance abuse.
Primary care medical rotations include general ward medicine, ambulatory
medicine, medical emergency room, and ward neurology.
PGY-II
Membership on an outpatient multidisciplinary team of residents,
faculty, psychologists, social workers, and nurses begins in the PGY-II
year. Residents have exposure to inpatient work, and continue work with
these same patients in an outpatient setting. In addition, residents
participate in outpatient psychiatric assessments; begin
psychotherapeutic work with individuals, couples, and families; and
monitor the need for psychotropic medications. Residents continue to
work with many of these patients throughout their years of training,
with ongoing case supervision. This integrated inpatient and outpatient
experience early in training has been an important change in our
program. Additional rotations in this year include one month in the
psychiatry emergency services area and a month on the neurology
consultation service. This last rotation is complementary to the one
month of ward neurology in the first year.
PGY-III
As a PGY-III, there are reduced ongoing longitudinal team
responsibilities with opportunities for continued care of patients. The
major rotations during this year are an in-depth child psychiatry
experience in our fully accredited Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
program and a rotation on the Consultation/Liaison Service, where the
fascinating range of patients seen on the medical and surgical wards and
outpatient clinics of our hospital provide an excellent learning
opportunity. There is a one month Geriatric Psychiatry rotation at the
West Los Angeles VA Hospital which combines outpatient and inpatient
experiences in evaluating and treating the special problems of the aged.
Finally, there is a half-day psychotherapy experience at a local health
maintenance organization, where the patient population complements what
is seen in the Harbor outpatient clinic.
PGY-IV
Our PGY-IV year is characterized by flexibility. The goal is to provide
trainees with the opportunity to place their individual stamp on their
final year of training. Approximately 60% of the resident’s time is
spent in team activities, including an experience in learning
organizational and management skills in a multidisciplinary setting. The
remaining time is reserved for electives planned by the resident.
Usually residents pursue an intensive exposure in a particular area,
e.g., a research project, in-depth work with a particular patient group,
and administrative experience in public mental health, teaching medical
students, work on innovative projects in the psychosocial rehabilitation
of the chronic mentally ill, etc. Our close affiliation with UCLA allows
residents to choose from among the many activities, clinical and/or
research, within the UCLA/NPI Department of Psychiatry in addition to
those at Harbor.