University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt Psychiatry Residency Program

The Training Program:

Year One | Year Two | Year Three | Year Four

Year One:

4 months of Adult General Psychiatry

2 months at a state inpatient unit (Spring Grove Hospital Center or Springfield Hospital Center). Call is an average of every 5th night at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital (SEPH).
2-month selective rotation at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center (BVAMC), Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC), or Programs in Assertive Community Treatment Team (PACT) at University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). Call is an average of every 5th night at SEPH.
Inpatient, outpatient, substance abuse and rehabilitation services in these facilities are closely coordinated so residents experience the full range of patient care. Residents carry no more than six inpatients at a time and receive regular attending supervision from the unit attending as well as an outside supervisor.

1 month of Addiction Psychiatry at the BVAMC or SEPH. Case conferences and didactic sessions weekly with faculty with addictions expertise supplement the experience. Call is an average of every 5th night at SEPH.
1 month of Emergency Psychiatry as part of the Psychiatric Emergency Service at UMMC. First-year residents work shifts (3 weeks of days and 1 week of nights), and there is no call.
3 months of Internal Medicine at Mercy Medical Center, a private hospital ten minutes from campus. Mercy is closely affiliated with UMMC's Internal Medicine Department, and our residents rotate along with prelim Mercy interns and upper level residents from UMMC. Call averages every 5th night.
1 month of adult or pediatric Emergency Room medicine at UMMC. Residents work in shifts, and there is no call.
2 months of Neurology - one month of General Inpatient Neurology at UMMC and one month of Stroke at UMMC with clinic during both months at the BVAMC 1-2 times per week. There is no call during these months, but interns do work Saturday mornings.
During the psychiatry rotations, didactics occur on Thursday when residents are on campus attending classes and Grand Rounds. This is followed by a resident meeting with lunch for all residents weekly. There is a monthly training directors/resident lunch which gives residents and training directors an opportunity to interact in an informal setting.
Psychiatry didactics include introductory courses in pharmacotherapy, interviewing, psychotherapy, inpatient strategies, neurology, general medicine and psychiatry, neuroscience, emergency psychiatry, substance abuse, professionalism, research methods, cultural psychiatry, teaching medical students, and clinical case conferences. Furthermore, residents participate in the Internal Medicine and Neurology didactic curriculums while assigned to these rotations.
During the intern year, you are allotted 15 vacation days, which are distributed according to rotation.

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Year Two:

A total of 8 months of advanced training in acute inpatient psychiatry. Each resident rotates for 2-3 months on a General Adult Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behavior (IPHB) at the University of Maryland Medical Center and for 1-2 months on the Geriatric Psychiatry Unit at IPHB. Additionally, each resident completes 2 weeks-1month of night float while at IPHB (Sunday through Thursday, 8pm to 8am). Each resident also rotates for 3 months at the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital consisting of 6 weeks on the Psychotic Disorders Unit and 6 weeks of a selective rotation (including the option of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry). Residents carry no more than 8 patients at one time. New PGY-2 residents may also rotate through the Springfield Hospital Center. Call averages every 6th night.
3 months of consultation/liaison psychiatry at the BVAMC and UMMC, including the Shock Trauma Center. There is no night call.
1 month of emergency psychiatry as part of the Psychiatric Emergency Service at UMMC. Second-year residents work shifts (3 weeks of nights and 1 week of days), and there is no call.
4 hours per week of outpatient long term psychotherapy.
Residents who begin the program in Year Two will have their curriculum adjusted to meet requirements for Board eligibility.
Didactics include psychopathology, neuropsychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, basic psychodynamics, substance abuse, child development, mental retardation, cultural psychiatry, emergency psychiatry, psychopharmacology, ethics, cognitive therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, family psychoeducation, community psychiatry, personality disorders, eating disorders, research in schizophrenia, psychological testing, and group therapy. A dynamic continuous case conference is also included in the didactics. There is a multidisciplinary case conference in which residents present to the training director or chairman.

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Year Three:

12 months of adult and child ambulatory psychiatry at several training sites (all downtown campus centers plus the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital and two community mental health centers) allow for a wide variety of approaches to patient care. Each offers a core experience of long term psychotherapy (a minimum of 6 hours per week total of therapy sessions and supervision with two therapy supervisors), short-term therapy, a group, a family, and a long-term child patient (each with supervision). We focus on the five psychotherapies in which competence is required by the Residency Review Committee of the ACGME: psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, supportive, brief and combined psychotherapy/psychopharmacology. Adult and child diagnostics, psychopharmacology clinics (all with supervision) and clinical case conferences are also provided.
Call consists primarily of back up call only, approximately once per month.
Didactics include observed dynamic psychotherapy, theory and practice of dynamic psychiatry, observed cognitive behavioral therapy, child psychiatry, pharmacotherapy, family therapy, cultural psychiatry, substance abuse, forensic psychiatry, brief psychotherapy, community psychiatry and the severely mentally ill, group therapy, ethics, mock oral boards, and a psychodynamic case conference. Residents may choose long term therapy supervisors from an extensive list of full time and volunteer faculty, who have a wide range of backgrounds and interests.

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Year Four:

12 months of electives, with a broad range of approximately 50 choices, including the various services of Sheppard Pratt, UMMS, the State system and State-supported community sites, the VA Medical Center, the Chief Resident positions, the faculty private practice, the Assertive Community Treatment Team for the homeless mentally ill, eating disorders, infant psychiatry, the forensic system, and a student health service. Elective choices in research include neuroscience, schizophrenia, pharmacology, and services delivery.
Either: (a) a 3-month part-time forensic psychiatry rotation (2 half-days a week) or (b) a one- or two-month full-time forensic psychiatry rotation
Continuing longitudinal experiences in long term psychotherapy and medication management
Call consists primarily of back up call only, approximately once per month
Didactics include psychiatric careers, hypnosis, substance abuse, genetics, advances in biologic and psychosocial psychiatry, history of psychiatry, advanced psychopharmacology, advanced cultural psychiatry, supportive therapy, disaster psychiatry, observed psychodynamic psychotherapy, and board preparation (including mock boards).
All residents must demonstrate competency in evaluating the scientific literature for evidence-based practice. Some residents choose to participate in research projects, write or co-write articles submitted for publication, and frequently present at national meetings.

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This page was last updated on: December 8, 2010.

For more information, call the University Physicians Consultation and Referral Service at 1-800-492-5538 (patients) or 1-800-373-4111 (physicians).