FOURTH POSTGRADUATE YEAR

The PGY4 year is where our residents consolidate their skills, pursue their specific interests and passions, and begin to develop specific expertise.

Two months of consultation/liaison psychiatry is required in the fourth year. On the C/L service, residents learn to integrate their knowledge of biopsychosocial medicine by consulting and collaborating with their non-psychiatric physician colleagues in a general hospital.

The remainder of the year involves  a broad range of clinical, administrative, teaching, and research electives (in addition to the formal Resident Research Track). Among the more popular are forensic psychiatry, ACT team, chemical addictions, ECT, Day Treatment Center, geriatric psychiatry, preparation for private practice, various research opportunities, and an eating disorders unit. 

In addition, psychotherapy cases and supervision are continued throughout the fourth year.  Opportunities are available to pursue further training in more specialized forms of psychotherapy such as CBT, IPT,  family therapy, and DBT.  Some residents elect to begin formal psychoanalytic training at the Dallas Psychoanalytic Center.

Core didactics include a continuous case conference and a selective series of advanced psychiatry seminars, which is revised each year in consultation with the resident group. Having covered all of the requirements, the coordinator of this course provides the residents a list of "areas of faculty expertise you didn't know about," and the residents pick and choose. In addition, a series of seminars on leadership and management, preparation for various career paths,  a review of neurology, and an overview of general psychiatry are included in the PGY-4 course