First Year Psychiatry Trainees

Psychiatry Intern Rotation Schedule-Example
Rotations:

 
Psychiatry Rotations                                                                                     
8 weeks – Inpatient Psychiatry                                                                  
8 weeks – Psychiatry Emergency Room/Consult Liaison (ER/CL)  
4 weeks – Substance Abuse Rehabilitation                                           
4 weeks – Elective                                                                                          
4 weeks – Operational Psychiatry
 
Non-Psychiatry Rotations
8 weeks – Neurology
8 weeks – Internal Medicine
4 weeks – Emergency Medicine
4 weeks – Family Practice

NMCP Psychiatry currently accepts six interns per year. There are four available continuous contracts, meaning that four interns per class will be invited to train for all four years of residency without any break in training. The remaining two contracts are for PGY1 year only, and these individuals will be invited to reapply to complete their residency training or can choose to complete an Operational Medicine tour (e.g. Flight Surgery, Fleet Marine Forces, General Medical Officer, Dive Medicine, etc.) prior to returning to residency training.

During the first year of psychiatry training at NMCP, the resident will rotate through a variety of specialties to ensure a well-rounded education as well as to meet ACGME requirements.  Please see example template above for specific rotations.  There is also an opportunity for one elective rotation built into the intern schedule. Some past interns have chosen to use these rotations for child and adolescent psychiatry, neuroradiology, cardiology, as well as additional core rotations (such as an additional internal medicine or neurology rotation).

First year residents take 12-hour call on the weekends (typically 0730 to 1930 on one of the weekend days) while rotating on the inpatient and ER/CL psychiatry services.  Didactics are provided by on service and off service attendings as well as senior residents.  First year residents are also paired with a PGY4 resident for mentoring and global supervision.
 
Rotation Descriptions
Operational Psychiatry:  This is a five-week rotation with our embedded mental health counterparts in the fleet. There are several options for rotation locations to include Medical Readiness Division (the embedded mental health for Naval Surface Force Atlantic), a Submarine Squadron, and/or Naval Special Warfare. The goal of this rotation is to gain more experience and knowledge about practicing mental health care in the operational setting.
  
ER/CL: The intern will evaluate psychiatric patients in the Emergency Room, and act as a consultant to  any medical or surgical team with patients that require psychiatric care. During this rotation, the intern will also work with sailors who were returned to the United States via medical evacuation and address transfers from civilian and military facilities in the Hampton Roads area.
 
Inpatient Psychiatry:  The acute psychiatric inpatient service consists of 32 inpatient beds.  In addition to providing acute stabilization of patients via medication management and other brief therapeutic interventions, the inpatient team will determine military fitness dispositions.
 
Internal Medicine: Consists of two five-week rotations on the internal medicine ward at NMCP, addressing the inpatient medical needs of active-duty service members, their dependents, and retirees. Typical cases might include treatment of acute infections requiring inpatient medical care, congestive heart failure exacerbations, patients receiving cancer treatments, and alcohol withdrawal.
 
Emergency Medicine: One five-week rotation in the NMCP Emergency Department providing emergent medical care to active-duty service members, retirees, and their dependents in a robust, evolving environment.  Hands on didactics enhance learning of critical care and combat care, ultrasound techniques and skills labs on the suturing large blood vessels, placing of chest tubes, and performing cricothyroidotomies.
 
Family Medicine:  Interns complete five weeks with NMCP Family Medicine clinic. During this rotation, interns will work with Family Medicine attendings in a clinic setting to evaluate and treat general medical conditions in active-duty service members.  Interns will also have to opportunity to perform minor office procedures such as placing and removing IUDs and Nexplanon, vasectomies, biopsies of moles and other skin conditions, and cyst removals.
 
Neurology:  While in the neurology department, interns work directly with the on-call attending neurologist to evaluate and treat inpatient consults over the course of two five-week rotations.  If time and patient load permits, residents will also see and evaluate patients in the outpatient neurology clinic, allowing even more exposure to ethe treatment of chronic neurologic conditions.
 
Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program (SARP):  This is a five-week residential rehab program located across the base from NMCP. Service members may be referred here by their command DAPA (Drug and Alcohol Program Advisor) or their inpatient or outpatient medical providers. While on rotation, residents will work with the SARP medical director to medically manage substance use disorders and the chronic physical/psychiatric sequelae resulting from substance use. They will also participate in group therapies offered to each service member as part of the program.