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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
  • 3 blocks of adult inpatient psychiatry at the West Haven VA
  • 1 block of adolescent psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH)
  • 1 block of child inpatient psychiatry at YNHH's St. Raphael's campus
5 blocks
PREP rotation* 1 block

*PREP is a unique new rotation that provides trainees exposure to systems of care that are outside the traditional specialty setting and also allows for time to develop projects that will be the focus of CASE rotations in the PGY-II year.

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. During the 1 block of PREP, residents are call-free during the week and cover Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital on weekends from 8am to 5pm, with call evenly distributed amongst residents on the rotation.