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Other Program Activities

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Grand Rounds & Didactics

Child Psychiatry Grand Rounds is a division-wide educational activity. Directed by the division chief, Grand Rounds includes clinical presentations by the fellows as well as clinical and research presentations by faculty and visiting academic clinicians.

The residency training program offers a comprehensive didactic program on Tuesday and Friday mornings. Didactics are a required part of training, and fellows are protected from clinical responsibilities during their didactics. Speakers include faculty selected from throughout the UCSD Department of Psychiatry as well as outside invited guests.

Journal Clubs & Case Conferences

One of the goals of UCSD Residency in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is to ensure that residents learn to think critically about clinical and research issues. The journal club format facilitates this process. Residents learn to read and critique current and classical medical and psychiatric literature with invited faculty.

The residents also participate in monthly Joint Case Conferences with UCSD Developmental and Behavioral Pediatricians as well as Pediatric Neurology/Child Psychiatry Case Conferences. Residents present cases seen within the hospital or outpatient clinic.

Boards Preparation

All of our residents take part in the National Child PRITE, a standardized computer self-assessment test. PG4 residents also take part in the National Psychiatry Resident-In-Training-Examinations (PRITE), which is designed to prepare residents for the written portion of the Psychiatry and Neurology Boards. Individual test scores are given to the resident and his performance is discussed with the residency training director.

Supervision

Supervision is a crucial part of our fellowship training. Each fellow has a minimum of three hours of assigned supervision per week. We offer group and indicidual supervision during the first and second years of fellowship. Supervisory assignments are rotated at six month intervals, giving each fellow exposure to as many faculty members as possible. Opportunities exist for longer term, continuous supervision upon request.

Electives

Traditional track second year fellows have the opportunity to pursue individual areas of interest in greater depth during elective time in their second year. Possible electives include, but are not limited to: research, administration, medical education, anxiety disorders clinic, cognitive-behavioral therapy, cross-cultural psychiatry, group therapy, pain clinic, substance abuse, advanced forensic training, eating disorder treatment, advanced developmental evaluation of young children, advanced psychopharmacology, psychodynamic literature, global mental health and psychobiology seminar. International elective opportunities are also available upon approval by the Residency Education Committee.

Community track second year fellows participate in a community psychiatry didactic series in place of the elective time during the second year.

Night & Weekend Call

Residents take call from home throughout their child psychiatry training. While on call, residents cover the inpatient services at CAPS and Children's Hospital, providing emergency psychiatric consultation in the emergency room of Children's Hospital as well as inpatient consultations. Residents cover new admissions to the CAPS inpatient unit on the weekend, while progress notes for inpatients are written by faculty on weekends. Residents receive supervision from their faculty attending back-up when on call. Residents take call from home weeknights while another resident covers weekend call (Friday, Saturday, Sunday night).