PGY 1

THE FOUNDATION YEAR

Educational Objectives

Post Graduate year 1 (PGY-1) provides a foundation for new medical graduates to solidify their skills and identity as physicians. Our internships place significant emphasis on the diagnosis and treatment of seriously ill medical patients, including neurologically disordered patients. The design of the PGY-1 training program is intended to enable the postgraduate trainee to acquire the academic knowledge, clinical skills and physician attitudes, so that the principal educational objective can be accomplished which is prepare the postgraduate trainee for entry into the specialty proper, that is PGY-2 to PGY-5 Psychiatry. The specific rotations and educational objectives have been developed so that they are in compliance with the training requirements of the Faculty of psychiatry at KIMS.

Clinical Rotations

Each PGY-1 trainee in Psychiatry will have a member of the Faculty in the role of mentor throughout the year for the purpose of discussion, advice and other matters pertaining to their training and career. The mentor will be the Psychiatry PGY-1 Coordinator of the home-base hospital.

PGY1 Psychiatry Resident Clinical Training:

• 1 month palliative care

• 2 months of neurology

• 1 month emergency medicine

• 2 months of family medicine

• 2 months elective

• 4 months in psychiatry – This will consist of 2 months of Emergency Psychiatry, 1 month of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and 1 month of Addiction Psychiatry:

• All PGY1’s do a rotation in Emergency Psychiatry during their Psychiatry block, in order to become comfortable and competent as soon as possible with the often anxiety-provoking situations that can occur in the emergency room.

• The consultation-liaison psychiatry rotation provides the PGY1 with basic skills to manage psychiatric emergencies with medically ill patients in preparation for the on call experience in later years. It also allows an opportunity to reflect on the psychiatric aspects of medical illness and the experience of the patient with a psychiatric illness who is dealing with a medical illness.

• The Addictions rotation introduces PGY1s to addiction psychiatry and addiction medicine through exposure to a variety of settings.

Elective Rotations

PGY1s do a wide variety of interesting things during their elective month. A review of potential opportunities will occur early in the academic year and they will have the opportunity to meet with PGY-1 coordinator personally to discuss the allocation of this month. It will be up to the individual PGY-1 Resident to structure this month, with help and supervision from the PGY1 coordinator and/or their local mentor.

The one-month elective could be spent in research under specific conditions:

1. An application for a research elective is completed

2. The research project and rationale is clearly identified. It must be feasible to complete the project in 4 weeks, or it can be a project that can be easily carried over into residency. A specific description of how the time will be spent must be included with the application (i.e. literature search and preparation of review article for publication, analysis and write-up of previously collected data, etc.).

3. A direct supervisor must be identified, and he/she must provide a letter of support.

Full Academic Day Each Week

Throughout the year, our PGY-1 trainees will be given an academic full day every week on Thursdays. This day is very important for the PGY-1 class, as it is the one time in the week that the whole class can meet. The didactics will cover basic knowledge in general psychiatry.