Psychiatry Clerkship Overview

The Psychiatry rotation consists of a total of six (6) core weeks divided into 3 weeks at the Health Science Centre and 3 weeks at the Waterford Hospital. 

• Each clerk is involved in the assessment and treatment of patients in the in-patient units, emergency department, and consultation/liaison settings.  Clerks are on call on average one night in four.

• Each clerk will participate in adult, child and geriatric outpatient clinics.  They will learn how to assess and manage patients suffering from a broad range of mental disorders by means of practical hands-on-experience, discussion with health-care professionals from all disciplines, observation, and “bedside” teaching, didactic lectures and independent reading.

Academic Half Days

• Academic activities include a half-day of formal lectures each week for which all clinical clerks are expected to attend and which take priority over all other activities.  In addition, clinical clerks are expected to participate in weekly case conferences in which they can expect to present one or two cases, as well as other unit specific and discipline wide academic activities.

Grand Rounds

• Psychiatry grand rounds take place every second Friday and clerks should attend these presentations.  These may be recorded on “ePresence” and clerks doing rotations in other provinces or clerks who cannot attend due to urgent clinical situations, can have access to these grand rounds at any time.

New Brunswick

• Another option is to do the core Psychiatry rotation in Saint John, New Brunswick, subject to availability.  The design of the rotation is slightly different than at the HSC but similar clinical experience are provided.

The Clerkship Handbook is online from the UGME website and has detailed information regarding the rotation.  The Discipline of Psychiatry performs its own preceptor to student matches after the core rotations lottery takes place; as such there is no choice sheet.
 
Written examinations are no longer part of the evaluation, as we have moved from block to progress testing. The assessment consists of observed clincial activity, and an oral clinical exam.

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