Curriculum

Rotations

The four-year curriculum in Psychiatry at Wright State University is designed to fulfill appropriate educational goals for each phase of training, making maximum use of the available physical, human, and clinical resources.

Required books used throughout the residency

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM–5). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
• Stern, T., Frava, M., Wilens, T., & Rosenbaum, J. (2015). Massachusetts General Hospital Psychopharmacology and Neurotherapeutics. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Recommended book

• Tasman, A., Kay, J., Lieberman, J., First, M., & Riba, M. (2015). Psychiatry, 4th Edition. Chichester, West Sussex, England; Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons.

R1

The goal of the first year of training is to solidify the identity of the resident as a psychiatric physician. A firm grounding in medicine and neurology is integrated with early exposure to clinical psychiatry. The R1 resident attains familiarity with psychiatric diagnosis and therapeutics, and emerges prepared to continue with specialty training. It is made up of 13 four-week blocks.

The R1 curriculum consists of

• Four blocks of Primary Care
• Two blocks of Neurology
• Four blocks of Inpatient Psychiatry
• One block of Substance Abuse
• One block of Emergency Psychiatry
• One block of Child Psychiatry

Required books for R1 didactics

• Bender, S., & Messner, E. (2004). Becoming a Therapist: What Do I Say, and Why? New York: The Guilford Press.
• Kaufman M. (2013). Kaufman’s Clinical Neurology for Psychiatrists, 7th ed. London: Elsevier.

See: Sample R1 didatctics (PDF)

R2

At the beginning of the second year, residents begin to see patients in individual psychotherapy. Our residents have the unusual opportunity to follow some patients through as much as three years of intensive psychotherapy.

See: Sample R2 didactics (PDF)

R3

The R3 year is primarily devoted to learning outpatient psychiatry. The goals are to attain skill in various modalities of psychotherapy and outpatient pharmacotherapy, to become competent in the assessment and diagnosis of emotional disorders in children and adolescents, and to achieve proficiency in the care of individuals with severe and persistent mental disorders.

Most of the third year curriculum is devoted to treatment of patients in the outpatient clinics and in the residents' offices. Training is provided in psychodynamic individual psychotherapy, brief and focal therapies, cognitive therapy, marital and family therapy, group psychotherapy, supportive psychotherapy, and psychopharmacologic management of ambulatory patients. Residents receive longitudinal exposure to patients with chronic mental disorders, and a year of experience in outpatient child psychiatry.

Required books for R3 didactics

• Gunderson, J. G., & Links, P. S. (2014). Handbook of Good Psychiatric Management for Borderline Personality Disorder. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
• Stahl, S. M. (2013). Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications. 4th ed. New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press.

Recommended book for R3 didactics

• Gentile, J. P., & Gillig, P. M. (2012). Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability: A Practical Manual. Oxford; Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

See: Sample R3 didactics (PDF)

R4

By the final year of the general psychiatry program, the resident has become a reliable therapist of many types of patients in varied settings. The goals of this year of training are to assimilate specialty skills and to pursue elective opportunities.

Each R4 resident may serve three months as a Senior Resident Instructor, leading a clinical care team of junior residents and medical students. A rotation in Forensic Psychiatry and an experience in Administrative Psychiatry are provided to all R4 residents.

Elective opportunities change from year to year; representative electives include:

• Advanced consultation-liaison
• Advanced child psychiatry
• Community psychiatry
• Geriatric psychiatry
• Marital and sex therapy
• Pain management
• Research
• Sleep disorders

Required books for R4 didactics

• Herman, J. (1997). Trauma and Recovery. New York, NY: Basic Books.
• Schlesinger, H. J. (2005). Endings and Beginnings: On the Technique of Terminating Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ : The Analytic Press.
• Wallin, D. J. (2007). Attachment in Psychotherapy. New York: Guilford Press.

See: Sample R4 didactics (PDF)

Supervision

The community-based structure of the Department of Psychiatry allows residents to draw on the talents of an unusually large faculty. The central department faculty are full-time clinicians/educators who function as the core of the training program, maintaining the focus of the educational philosophy. Each training site has faculty members with the designated task of teaching residents. Dozens of community psychiatrists eagerly donate their time for supervision of residents' psychotherapy cases, and for elective rotations. The generous didactic schedule and conference series augments the on-site and off-site supervisory hours to provide a high ratio of teaching to clinical work.

The faculty of award-winning teachers possesses a particular degree of expertise in the practice and teaching of psychotherapy. The time honored perspective of depth exploration of the minds and lives of our patients is applied in the context of a medical philosophy suitable for the twenty-first century.

It is a policy of the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine that residents and medical students learn together. The Department of Psychiatry wholeheartedly endorses this policy. Teaching is viewed as an integral part of the psychiatrist's job, and the training of medical students enhances the resident's learning.