Clinical Curriculum
In addition to providing opportunities to manage patients in different clinical settings, the clinical curriculum is designed to ensure that you will rotate through many different systems of care. These systems include a free standing psychiatric hospital (Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital), a community hospital (Yale-New Haven Hospital), a federal hospital (VA Connecticut Health Care Center) and a state hospital (Connecticut Mental Health Center). We believe that exposure to different systems of care is critical to developing the ability to lead a system of care later in your career.
The core psychiatry program is designed to provide the clinical experiences essential for the development of basic knowledge and skills needed to practice in all sectors of contemporary psychiatry.
PGY-I
The PGY-I year is designed to solidify your identity as a physician. You will complete 13, 4-week long blocks consisting of:
| Medicine with both inpatient and ambulatory experiences | 5 blocks |
| Neurology on wards and consults | 2 blocks |
| Psychiatry: 2 blocks of adult inpatient psychiatry at the West Haven VA 2 blocks of child and adolescent psychiatry spanning inpatient and intensive outpatient settings within Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) 1 block of Addiction Psychiatry at the West Haven VA | 5 blocks |
| PREP rotation* | 1 block |
*PREP is a unique rotation centered on supporting intern preparation for aspects of PGY-II year. This includes the development of mentorship and academic projects as well as introductions to community mental health and forensic psychiatry settings.
Call Responsibilities for PGY-Is
During PGY-I, residents provide coverage during their 5 blocks of medicine as outlined by the service on which they are rotating. During the 2 blocks of neurology, residents are call-free. During the 5 blocks of psychiatry, residents provide coverage for the Psychiatric Emergency Room at YNHH on weeknights from 6pm to 10pm and for Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital on weekends from 8am to 5pm, with call averaging to about one shift every seven days.
PGY-II
The PGY-II year is designed to support development of your identity as a psychiatrist. During this year you will begin weekly individual psychotherapy supervision and be assigned a longitudinal psychotherapy patient who you will work with for the remainder of your time in training as part of the Long-Term Care Clinic. During this year, you will also complete 13, 4-week long blocks consisting of:
| Inpatient Psychiatry | 4 blocks |
| Geriatrics | 1 block |
| CASE (Clinical and Academic Skills Enhancement) | 3 blocks |
| Consult/Liaison | 2 blocks |
| Emergency Psychiatry | 1 block |
| Clinical Elective Experience | 2 weeks |
Call Responsibilities for PGY-IIs:
Residents participate in 2 - 2 week blocks of Night Float providing overnight care to patients within our Connecticut Mental Health Center or Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital. Additional sporadic overnight, holiday and weekend call occurs in these settings outside of night float blocks over the course of the PGY II year.
Clinical and Academic Skills Enhancement (CASE):
Selective that includes the opportunity to receive up to 3 months of funding for an academic project, including the potential for international travel.
PGY-III
The PGY-III year consists of 12 months of outpatient psychiatry. Additionally, PGY-III residents will continue psychotherapy supervision and longitudinal psychotherapy work through the Long Term Care Clinic. 20% of time during the PGY-III year is reserved to allow you to continue an academic project or to work with a specialized patient population.
Call Responsibilities for PGY-IIIs
During PGY-III residents are on-call in the Crisis Intervention Unit of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Emergency Room. Each resident provides overnight and weekend care of patients in this setting during 12 hour shifts, which whenever possible, are consolidated into 4-5 day blocks. There are no other on-call responsibilities in the PGY-III year.
PGY-IV
The PGY-IV year is designed to permits flexibility to develop an individualized program that allows you to pursue a career interest, an academic project, work with a specialized group of patients, or make up any rotations which may have not been completed earlier in training. You will work with your mentor and Associate Program Director to identify a PGY-IV education plan that facilitates your entry into the next stage of your career.
Call Responsibilities for PGY-IVs
There is no required on-call during the PGY-IV year except for circumstances in which a resident is completing requirements not completed earlier in their training, such as due to a leave of absence.