The First Year
A few words from . . .
Akankshi Thakur, MD
PGY 2 Resident (2011-2012)
Interns begin with an initial exposure to psychiatry at the New Mexico VA Medical Center, a regional flagship center that serves as a referral source for the VA system in the Southwest. This includes six months on a state-of-the-art inpatient psychiatry unit working with an exceptional interdisciplinary service. Residents learn about the acute management of psychiatric disorders and interact with behavioral health providers throughout the facility working in a highly sophisticated system in which veterans can receive appropriate care at multiple levels.
Complementing this inpatient experience is a year-long immersion in the outpatient treatment of psychiatric patients with serious mental illness in the primary care clinic. Residents work in this clinic one half day a week and work concurrently with both medical and psychiatric supervisors to provide both medical and psychiatric care to their patients.
Interns also work both at the VA and at the University of New Mexico to complete their requirements in other disciplines. This includes two months of neurology, one at UNM and the other at the VA. Interns also spend four months on internal medicine at either of the two facilities. One of these is on the inpatient medical wards, and the other three months can be spent at a combination of outpatient medicine clinics, emergency medicine, family practice clinic, or inpatient or outpatient pediatrics.
The didactic experience during the first year is focused on the development of an identity as a physician, and particularly as a psychiatrist. It is focused on interviewing skills, an exploration of the major psychiatric diagnoses, management and treatment of psychiatric patients, and responses to urgent and emergent situations.
Rotations
- VAMC Psychiatry primary care clinic 12 months (concurrent)
- Inpatient Psychiatry (VAMC) 6 months
- Internal medicine requirements – these can be satisfied with a combination of inpatient medicine, outpatient medicine clinics, emergency medicine, family practice – inpatient or outpatient clinics, pediatrics – inpatient or outpatient clinics. 4 months, of which at least 1 month is inpatient internal medicine.
- Neurology – 2 months; one at the Albuquerque VA, one at UNM Hospital.