PGY-4 Overview
Schedule and Locations
The fourth year is where you will consolidate your skills, pursue your specific interests and passions, and begin to develop specific expertise.
Consultant-Liaison Psychiatry
Duration: 2 months
Location: Parkland Hospital
Electives
Duration: 10 months
Location: Depends on electives chosen
What You Will Learn
You will attend a continuous case conference and a selective series of advanced psychiatry seminars, which is revised each year in consultation with the residents. Having covered all of the requirements, the coordinator of this course will provide you with a list of "areas of faculty expertise that you didn't know about," and your class will together design your own syllabus. In addition, you will attend a series of seminars on leadership and management, prepare for various career paths, review neurology, and receive an overview of general psychiatry for boards preparation.
Balance and Diversity
Two months of consultation-liaison psychiatry is required in the fourth year. On the C/L service, you will learn to integrate your knowledge of biopsychosocial medicine by consulting and collaborating with your non-psychiatric physician colleagues in a general hospital.
The remainder of the year involves a broad range of clinical, administrative, teaching, and research electives, including the formal Resident Research Track. Among the more popular electives are:
- Forensic psychiatry
- ACT team
- Chemical addictions
- ECT
- Day Treatment Center
- Geriatric psychiatry
- Preparation for private practice
- Various research opportunities
- Eating disorders unit
Opportunities
Psychotherapy cases and supervision are continued throughout your fourth year. You will have opportunities to pursue further training in more specialized forms of psychotherapy such as CBT, IPT, family therapy, and DBT. You may also elect to begin formal psychoanalytic training at the Dallas Psychoanalytic Center.