General Adult Psychiatry Residency

The program devotes half a day each week to protected didactic time. All four classes participate in protected didactics, allowing for a truly longitudinal curriculum. Between September and June, the protected time includes Grand Rounds. These interdisciplinary sessions include local, regional, and national speakers on a wide range of clinical and research topics.

The remainder of the afternoon consists of four hours of lectures tailored to residents’ level of training. First-year residents focus on core psychiatric concepts, including a psychopharmacology series taught by our Chair, Dr. Lauriello. Second-year residents build on these concepts through deeper dives into psychopharmacology, quality improvement, and foundational psychotherapy skills. The third year is devoted to key concepts in outpatient care, including psychopharmacology, psychodynamic therapy, and behavioral therapies (CBT, DBT, and ACT). Fourth-year residents concentrate on advanced topics and transition to practice.

Longitudinal components of didactic training include our diversity series, journal clubs, and our

wellness curriculum, which brings together all four classes for resident-selected activities

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: The psychodynamic therapy curriculum presents core components of psychoanalytic theory, from the assessment phase through termination. Psychodynamic principles are illustrated in multiple ways: appearing innocuously in everyday life, causing problems that bring someone into therapy, and potentially affecting the therapeutic relationship. The teaching approach suggests that psychodynamic conceptualization and techniques can overlap with a variety of other therapy modalities. Teaching modalities for psychodynamic psychotherapy include interactive didactics, psychodynamic case conferences, and a longitudinal case conference that follows a single case over the course of an academic year.

Behavioral Therapies: The Behavioral Psychotherapies curriculum begins with foundational knowledge of theory relating to Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapies, including the context in which maladaptive behavior develops. Next, residents learn brief, portable therapeutic techniques and interventions from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Third-year residents are exposed to the application of ACT, DBT, CBT, and Radically Open DBT to ongoing therapy cases. Emphasis is placed on values clarification, unsticking from problematic thoughts, behavioral activation, emotion regulation, and forging of social connections. Finally, the fourth-year residents participate in Behavioral Psychotherapy Advanced Practice, where application of these evidence-based treatments to longer-term therapy cases is supported via review of session tapes, live demonstrations, and thorough case formulation. Adaptation of behavioral psychotherapies to specific populations is addressed, including trans/non-binary/gender expansive individuals, people with marginalized racial identities, people with chronic medical conditions, and people living in economic scarcity.

Teaching methods for behavioral psychotherapies include case conference, seminars, video demonstrations, live demonstrations, and role-plays.

The TJUH Clinician Educator Program prepares residents and fellows for roles in medical education by offering additional training and mentorship in clinical teaching, curriculum development, and academic scholarship. The program focuses on development of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to succeed as a clinician-educator through specialized didactics, support for educational projects, and mentorship for academic conferences and publications. PGY3 and PGY4 residents, as well as Child & Adolescent Psychiatry fellows, are eligible to join the CEP, which meets on protected didactic days.

In our hospitals and clinics, we serve patient populations with tremendous diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, national origin, languages spoken, gender identity, socioeconomic status, and lived experience. All our clinical sites for resident education accept Medicare and Medicaid, as well as private insurance.

Our program is committed to building a diverse workforce of highly skilled psychiatrists and leaders. We believe that residents and faculty with diverse backgrounds, interests, and experiences enhance the educational environment and improve our ability to serve the diverse communities of Philadelphia.

The residency didactic curriculum includes a strong diversity component. We have a robust diversity curriculum spanning all four years and encourage presenters to include diversity-related information and diverse representation in all didactic presentations.

In addition, our department Diversity Committee, chaired by Dr. Shawn Blue, hosts Grand Rounds and social events throughout the year.

Included in our curriculum is a Wellness Curriculum, which is overseen by Dr. Madeleine Becker and led by our Chief Resident for Wellness and a team of residents dedicated to this work. The curriculum is designed by the residents, for our residents and fellows. This program was developed to support resident well-being and to foster the professional and personal growth of our psychiatry trainees. The Wellness Committee meets monthly to plan monthly events during our Wednesday didactic day. Events vary and change based on feedback. Past events include lunches, social activities, craft and art projects, holiday and seasonal events and after work happy hours or activities. We also plan for fellowship panels and career panels throughout the year. The Wellness Committee also runs our unofficial residency Instagram account, which posts about residency activities and profiles our wonderful residents.

Residents take in-house call during the PGY1-3 years at Jefferson. Senior residents participate in the backup system, which supports residents who are unable to report for scheduled call due to illness or other acute circumstances.

As a PGY1, residents complete a total of 5-6 weeks of Night Float, with weekend call sprinkled throughout the year. PGY1s cover the Emergency Department and 14 Thompson inpatient unit and are always supported on-site by a senior resident (PGY2 or PGY3).

PGY2 and PGY3 residents divide weeknight call, covering the Consult-Liaison Service and providing teaching backup to the PGY1. PGY2s also take sprinkled weekend calls, while PGY3s have no scheduled weekend call.

PGY1 residents have three scheduled weeks of vacation throughout the year, in addition to a 10-day period of time off between PGY1 and PGY2 years. PGY2-4 resident have 4 weeks of vacation. In addition to vacation time, all residents (PGY1-4) participate in a “holiday block” at the end of December, which offers more flexible scheduling during this time.

We utilize a backup system for coverage if the resident on call is sick or otherwise unable to work. The backup system consists of senior residents who are available on a rotating basis to cover if needed.

Conference time is also available, and residents who are presenting may apply for departmental funding.