Advanced Clerkship in Inpatient Psychiatry
PS 531M.23
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
The Advanced Clerkship at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital's 2 South Inpatient Psychiatry unit is designed for students who have completed the Core Clerkship in Psychiatry and are seeking a deeper, more immersive clinical experience. Over four weeks, the student functions in a sub-intern role on a locked 24-bed medical psychiatry unit caring for adults with a wide range of acute psychiatric presentations, often in the context of comorbid medical illness. This setting offers a distinctive training environment at the interface of psychiatry and medicine.
The student joins a teaching team consisting of an attending psychiatrist, a senior psychiatry resident, and a psychiatry intern, and participates in a multidisciplinary care model that includes nursing, mental health workers, social work, occupational therapy, and psychology. Under direct attending and resident supervision, the student will conduct psychiatric interviews and develop assessment and treatment plans, building the clinical reasoning skills expected of a graduating medical student considering psychiatry.
The student may observe or participate in ECT and IV ketamine treatment, modalities not routinely encountered in the core clerkship. Weekly individual supervision with the attending psychiatrist provides dedicated time for case-based learning and career development in psychiatry. The student also participates in weekly case conferences and didactic sessions with the resident team. In week four, the student leads a case conference as an end-of-rotation scholarly activity, consolidating the clinical and presentation skills developed throughout the clerkship.
There are no overnight or weekend call requirements for this elective. Once weekly, the student participates in an afternoon admissions shift alongside the resident, gaining exposure to acute psychiatric evaluation in real time; these shifts end by 6 PM.
Not Available for Cross Registration
