A novel approach to medicine training for psychiatry residents.
OBJECTIVE
A unique rotation was developed to address limited outpatient internal medicine training in psychiatric residency by the University of California, Davis, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, which provides medical care to patients with mental illness.


METHODS
The number of patients seen by the service and the number of psychiatric consults was determined from electronic records for the 2005-2006 academic year. Evaluations by psychiatry residents completing the rotation were reviewed. Three internist-psychiatrists and one family medicine-psychiatrist provided supervision.


RESULTS
A total of 1,255 patients were treated during the 2005-2006 academic year. The quality of the educational experience was positive, with an overall rating of 4.43 on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest.


CONCLUSIONS
Training psychiatry residents in internal medicine can be better integrated into their psychiatry education in a creative fashion when the teaching and supervision is provided by jointly trained attendings in internal medicine/psychiatry or family medicine/psychiatry. The success of the rotation contributed to the development of a combined internal medicine and psychiatry residency program.
Onate
John
J
University of California Davis, Department of Psychiatry, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. onatej@saccounty.net
Hales
Robert
R
McCarron
Robert
R
Han
Jaesu
J
Pitman
Dorothy
D
D001290:Attitude; D004493:Education / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods