Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences

Welcome

NuHealth offers a well-rounded, fully accredited, four-year Residency Training Program in General Psychiatry that gives residents clinical experience in all areas of psychiatry so as to establish a foundation for future specialization. The educational philosophy of this program emphasizes fundamental mastery of a wide variety of diagnostic and treatment approaches, and an intellectual appreciation of the evidence supporting their use.

The residents, under the guidance and supervision of an experienced faculty, gain clinical expertise in the care and treatment of a diverse patient population. The Department is responsible for more than 3,550 inpatient admissions per year, accounting for more than 35,500 inpatient days. These figures have doubled over the last three years as the Department has expanded to 183 inpatient beds.

The interdisciplinary nature of our clinical department exposes the trainees to a wide range of theories and therapies. The Department is continuously expanding and improving, and, thus, it provides a rich academic and training environment for the residents throughout the four years of training. For example, in the past two years, the Department has added a Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Unit, an additional adult psychiatric unit, and a second Child and Adolescent Inpatient Unit. A Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP) is currently under construction. An Outpatient Child and Adolescent Program, and an Outpatient Geriatric Program are currently under development.

The Department is affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry at SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine, and with the North Shore-LIJ Health System, where cross-training opportunities are available. We also have an American Psychological Association-accredited Clinical Psychology Internship Program.

We welcome your interest in our residency program, and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Constantine Ioannou, MD
Chair

Romain Branch, MD
Program Director

Program Description

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Sciences at NuHealth is the most active provider of comprehensive mental health services on Long Island. It is a major community mental health program that provides direct clinical services and outreach programs, consultation and educational activities.

The Ambulatory Mental Health Service provides more than 8,000 service visits per year. Our 24-hour Psychiatric Emergency Department makes us a major receiving hospital on Long Island. The emergency service is supervised by two full-time and several part-time psychiatrists, as well as by several psychiatric social workers and nurses.

The professional clinical staff of the Department presently includes 22 full-time and 2 part-time psychiatrists, 9 full-time psychologists, 28 psychiatry residents, and 5 psychology interns. The Department also benefits from staffing with excellent nurses, social workers and recreation therapists. The entire staff participates in the “360 degree” training and evaluation of our residents.

Medical and allied health profession students rotate throughout the Department, including medical students from SUNY Stony Brook, NY College of Osteopathic Medicine and the American University of the Caribbean. After its opening in 2011, the new Hofstra University School of Medicine will also send students for rotations in the Department. Psychiatry residents play an important role in medical student education.

FIRST YEAR (PGY-1 CATEGORICAL)

This fully accredited program conforms to the requirements of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology for board certification in Psychiatry. The achievement of core competencies is stressed. Seven residents are enrolled in the Categorical First Year, which includes four months of Internal Medicine, two months of Neurology, and six months of Adult Inpatient Psychiatry. All training in the first year takes place at NuHealth. PGY-1 residents in Psychiatry are each assigned to one of our Adult Inpatient Treatment Teams, where they receive intensive and continuously supervised clinical experience with patients hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation, treatment, and disposition.

Each resident is supervised directly by two members of the psychiatric faculty to whom she or he is assigned. During clinical rotations, the resident also comes into contact with other members of the treatment team, including fellow residents, psychiatric nurses, social workers, psychologists, recreational therapists and medical students. Psychiatric evaluations and treatment plans are carefully coordinated at daily clinical rounds and at team meetings.

In addition to this clinical-training component, all PGY-1 residents receive approximately eight hours per week of formal didactic instruction, which includes orientation to psychiatry, basic lectures in psychiatry, consultation liaison psychiatry conferences, seminars in psychiatry, the psychiatric interview course, and other didactic activities. Training experiences of comparable quality are provided during their Internal Medicine and Neurology rotations.

SECOND YEAR (PGY-2)

This year of training includes rotations of three months in the Psychiatric Emergency Department, three months on the Inpatient Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Units, one-and-a-half months on the Substance Abuse Inpatient Service, one-and-a-half months on the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Service, and three months as an advanced resident on other Adult Inpatient Units.

The child psychiatry rotation involves work with both children and adolescents on the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Units. Opportunity is provided to observe and perform evaluations of patients for admission, participate in individual work-up, psychotherapy, and follow-up of patients, attend team meetings, and work with the child psychologists and social workers. The resident takes part in disposition planning, and has ongoing contact with families, schools, and child agencies whenever indicated. The three-month, full-time assignment to the Psychiatric Emergency Department is closely related to the experience on the inpatient service, since virtually all admissions are initially evaluated there. It provides an opportunity to view both acute and chronic patients presenting at an earlier stage in the course of their current episode of illness, frequently before any treatment has been provided. This experience hones the resident’s diagnostic abilities. The Emergency Department rotation also provides an in-depth knowledge of the community support systems needed in the comprehensive care of psychiatric patients.

Competency in ECT procedures is learned at Hillside Hospital, which is part of the North Shore-LIJ Health Care System.

The PGY-2 year, in addition to the clinical-training component, is one of the core didactic years in the training program. Consequently, the residents receive over eight hours of formal basic didactic curriculum on a weekly basis throughout this year. This includes curriculum in psychopathology, psychopharmacology, child psychiatry, ethics, brief psychodynamic psychotherapy, empathic interviewing techniques, and other areas. At the end of the second year of training, the resident will have acquired sufficient mastery of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are required to perform more independent work and study during the third and fourth years of training.

THIRD YEAR (PGY-3)

The third year of training consists of a year-long, full-time outpatient training experience under supervision. In the outpatient service, the resident evaluates and treats a group of carefully selected patients under close supervision to gain experience in the various treatment modalities, including long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy, supportive psychotherapy, brief therapy, family and couple’s therapy, group therapy, behavioral and cognitive therapy, and outpatient pharmacotherapy.

A well-thought-out didactic curriculum complements the clinical experiences. This includes year-long courses in psychoanalytic theory and practice, and cognitive and behavioral therapy, and courses in short-term therapy, family therapy, group dynamics and crisis intervention.

FOURTH YEAR (PGY-4)

This final year of training is a time when the residents consolidate all of the competencies acquired during the residency. Residents engage in increasingly independent decision-making, and are involved in supervisory, administrative, scholarly, and qualit- assurance activities. This year prepares the residents to graduate, and to become confident and knowledgeable mental health care providers.

Fourth-year residents divide their time between subspecialty and elective rotations, and continuation of long-term treatments in the outpatient department. During their advanced consultation liaison rotation, residents expand on the competencies acquired during the PGY-2 year. The residents also work more independently, gathering the relevant information and clinical details required to present their cases during consultation rounds. They follow up with patients on a regular basis, and provide psychiatric treatment and management when required.

The residents continue with their half-time, year-long outpatient experience, gaining understanding of long-term psychotherapy, chronic psychiatric disorders, ambulatory treatments, rehabilitation and consultation.

Residents also participate in a two-month rotation at the Nassau County Correctional Center to learn about Outpatient Forensic Mental Health. Further training also involves a two-month geriatric psychiatry rotation at the A. Holly Patterson Skilled Nursing Facility. The residents, during this year, are also intimately involved in administrative and quality assurance-activities, teaching and supervision of junior residents, elective activities, and psychiatric research. Through its collaboration with NS-LIJ, the Department is actively involved in NIMH research studies on an ongoing basis, and the residents have the opportunity to actively participate in these studies. Each senior resident completes a scholarly project for presentation at a national meeting, supported by the program.

Please click for Department of Psychiatry Program Leaflet

Useful Links

• American Psychiatric Association (APA)
• American Academy of Clinical Psychiatrists
• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP)
• American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN)
• American Psychoanalytical Association (APsaA)
• Association for Academic Psychiatry
• American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law