An article by Tobias Wasser, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Director of the Yale Public Psychiatry Fellowship, was chosen by the American Association of Psychiatric Administrators to receive the organization’s Best Resident/Fellow Paper Award.
The paper, “Gaining Administrative Experience During Residency – Identifying and Exploring Opportunities,” was published in the Journal of Psychiatric Administration and Management, the official publication of the American Association of Psychiatric Administrators.
Wasser submitted the manuscript when he was a fellow in the Yale Fellowship in Public Psychiatry. He wrote that it is important for psychiatrists to begin to develop experience in administrative leadership during their training even though most residency programs do not have “leadership” or “administrative” tracks for their trainees.
In the paper, he highlighted opportunities particularly for PGY-2, 3, and 4 residents to take on administrative roles. For example, trainees can gain administrative experience in various “chief resident” positions during their PGY-4 year, he wrote.
“Each residency designs the role of departmental chief resident somewhat differently. However, features common to most programs include the chief resident(s) meeting regularly with program administration and serving as a liaison between administration and residents, designing and implementing the on-call schedule, and serving as a go-to resource when residents have questions or concerns about various aspects of their training experience,” he wrote.
He wrote that training programs must adapt to changes in healthcare and provide trainees exposure to administrative training to better prepare them for future practice.
“Psychiatrists often become leaders in various clinical and academic settings, but it’s hard to find experiences which help to prepare you for such roles during training,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate during my time here at Yale to have been selected to serve in roles which allowed me to learn a little bit about administrative psychiatry and as a result it has really helped to shape my career goals. I wanted to write the manuscript as a way to highlight similar opportunities so that those trainees with similar career interests would have a roadmap for how to get started.”