A day in the life of a PGY-3 psychiatry resident

As a third year psychiatry and behavioral sciences resident, most residents claim that life is pretty good! This year is dedicated to practicing in the outpatient setting. Residents rotate through four sites during the year: the VA, Seven Counties Services, Centerstone (Louisville's community mental health system) and UofL Ambulatory Care. One morning a week, they see their own long-term psychotherapy patients, which has been a very valuable part of training. Frequently, they have several patients that they have been following since the beginning of their second year and it feels special to them to grow with them as a psychiatrist. They discuss their patients with a long-term supervisor, who imparts techniques in various types of psychotherapy.

An example of this year, the resident will arrive at the VA Shively clinic by the 8:15 a.m. treatment team meeting. The physicians, as well as the nurses, social workers and support staff, discuss upcoming cases for the day. Then they see patients, making medication adjustments, based on clinical picture and providing supportive psychotherapy. Most residents are amazed to see how much they have learned in the past two years at this point. After seeing patients, they discuss cases with their attending supervisor on-site. The attendings are all very open, approachable and love to teach. They usually leave work by 4:00 p.m. for plenty of time to balance life outside of residency.