Psychiatric Residency Training Program

Department of Psychiatry
Telephone: (480) 344-2028
eraspsy@medicine.maricopa.gov

Information on:

Program Overview
The Psychiatric Center
1st Post-Grad Year
2nd Post-Grad Year
3rd Post-Grad Year
4th Post-Grad Year
Conferences & Didactics
Call & Benefits
Applicant Qualifications
To Apply for Position
Faculty
Resident Contracts & Application Policies

The Psychiatric Residency Training Program

The residency program has been educating psychiatrists since 1977. We currently have full accreditation status from ACGME. Most of our recent graduates have pursued fellowships. Those who have not, usually remain in Phoenix.

The goal of the Maricopa Medical Center Psychiatric Residency Training Program is to provide an educational experience of such quality as to assure that its graduates will possess sound clinical judgment and knowledge about the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of psychiatric disorders. Graduates of this four year program will be able to provide a high quality of contemporary care to the broad range of patients frequently encountered in a general psychiatric practice. Further, residents will be well trained to recognize common medical and neurological disorders, especially as they impact on the emotional well being of patients. It is the Faculty's anticipation that upon completion of the program our graduates will be thoroughly prepared to pursue a variety of career options, including additional subspecialty training. The program's significant community involvement, multidisciplinary faculty, diversity of patients and broad clinical experiences create the confidence that a resident needs to enter the rapidly changing environment of psychiatric practice.

To achieve these goals, the Residency Program in Psychiatry at the Maricopa Medical Center has developed a program of clinical rotations, didactic experiences, and individual supervision. At the core of the program is the "preceptor model," in which psychiatric residents are teamed with attending psychiatrists in a "one to one" fashion. A substantial portion of this training occurs on units or in clinics which are primarily oriented to resident education. The attending psychiatrists staffing these teaching units have as a core responsibility the training of residents through both intensive supervision and the ongoing review of current psychiatric literature.

Clinical rotations are implemented to provide a sense of progressive mastery over the basics of psychiatry. Providing thorough diagnostic evaluations and data-based care to the very ill leads to an increasing proficiency in the art, science and economics of psychiatry. Initial inpatient exposure to the basics of psychopharmacology and phenomenology is paired with primary care training through the Maricopa Medical Center's Internal Medicine Residency or Pediatric Residency Program. These inpatient experiences transition into more psychotherapeutic modalities as the resident begins to assume outpatient responsibilities in the second year. This process culminates in a longitudinal third year experience in outpatient psychiatry where the resident is the primary psychiatric provider under supervision from attending psychiatrists. The fourth year schedule includes child and adolescent psychiatric rotations in several community settings where the resident will participate within a multidisciplinary model, an experience in administrative psychiatry and a number of elective rotation options.

Paralleling the rotations is a full day a week dedicated to didactics and free of clinical duties. First year didactics focus on establishing a theoretical and phenomenological basis for understanding mental disorders, therapies and the systems and conditions under which treatment occurs. In the second year teaching of psychotherapies begins along with closer look at various mental disorders. Human development is taught in the second year as prelude to child and adolescent psychiatry in the third year. Third year courses continue to focus on psychotherapies, including an ongoing psychodynamic case conference. Fourth year courses address advanced issues in biological psychiatry and psychopharmacology, career development and other issues of interest to the fourth year residents.

Maricopa Integrated Health System's
Desert Vista Behavioral Health Center

The MIHS Desert Vista Behavioral Health Center is a 100+ bed psychiatric hospital located near downtown Mesa, Arizona. This Southwestern city with its dry, comfortable winters and hot summers, offers numerous cultural and recreational opportunities as well as a moderate cost of living. The State is well known for its multicultural population and thus the house staff is involved with the care of patients from a variety of cultural, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. The Department and Program are based in the Desert Vista Behavioral Health Center which opened in 2001 with facilities for teaching and clinical service. The Center has six inpatient adult units for voluntary and involuntary psychiatric treatment. Desert Vista has a resident run outpatient clinic as well as the Program's library, classrooms and administrative activities.

The MIHS Psychiatric Center is located in downtown Phoenix next to the Maricopa Medical Center. It has 60+ beds and includes a geriatric psychiatry unit. The consultation-liaison and emergency psychiatry services are also located in the Psychiatric Center.

Through its Department of Psychiatry, the Medical Center serves as the parent for the Psychiatric Residency Training Program and provides sponsorship, funds, faculty, and clinical settings for the program.

The First Post-Graduate Year

The PGY I year is designed to introduce the resident to the basics of medical and psychiatric care through a comprehensive program of structured clinical services, on-call experiences, and seminars. The resident focuses on the evaluation and acute management of psychiatrically ill adults and mastering basic phenomenology, theory and pharmacotherapeutics. The year includes four months of primary care medicine or pediatrics, two months of neurology, six months of adult inpatient psychiatry.

Experience in primary care medicine is obtained through a rotation with the Maricopa Medical Center's Departments of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. Three months will be spent in the Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinics or Pediatric Clinics where residents will receive exposure to both adult and pediatric cases. An inpatient internal medicine and pediatric rotations of one month each will occur at the Medical Center.

The neurology rotation occurs at the Maricopa Medical Center under the direction of the neurological service. Under the supervision of the attending neurologists, the resident participates in both outpatient clinics and consultations on neurological inpatients.

During the first year, didactic experiences are structured around topics in basic psychiatric diagnosis, treatment modalities, interviewing skills, and the psychodynamic, cognitive/behavioral and biological basis of psychiatric illness. The history of psychiatry, the structure of the system of care, ethics and forensics are taught. Residents will also be introduced to research methodology and literature usage during this year.

Residents participate in frequent case conferences, weekly Department-wide Continuing Education and a Journal Club.

The Second Post-Graduate Year

The PGY II year is considered to be a transitional period between the inpatient and outpatient modalities. The resident is expected to consolidate skills in the assessment of acutely ill patients, assume greater responsibilities as a team leader, and begin to acquire an outpatient case load.

The clinical experiences include two months in a community-based psychiatric emergency service, two months of consultation-liaison psychiatry, two months of geriatric psychiatry, one month of addiction psychiatry and five months of general inpatient psychiatry at Desert Vista Behavioral Health or MIHS Psychiatric Center. The inpatient experiences are designed to allow the resident to develop greater autonomy and facility in dealing with severely ill patients.

As a member of the Psychiatric Consultation Liaison Team, the PGY II resident provides psychiatric consultation services to the Medical Center. The Consultation Team delivers service throughout the hospital and residents are exposed to cases from surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, emergency medicine and orthopedics. There are also a number of specialty programs, such as a burn unit, oncology services, and a pain clinic that refer patients for consultation. This service, under the direction of a full time faculty member, is considered to be an integral part of the Medical Center and averages 4-6 new consults per day.

The resident also begins to assume outpatient responsibilities during the PGY II year. To facilitate this process, individual psychotherapy supervision and instruction in psychodynamic and cognitive/behavioral therapies are provided (in addition to the general service supervision), and it is expected that at least one long term psychotherapy patient will be followed. The PGY II courses are designed to meet these increasing responsibilities. Required seminars include yearlong courses in child and adolescent development, syndromes and therapeutics, psychotherapeutic techniques and addiction disorders.

The Third Post-Graduate Year

The PGY III year is a longitudinal outpatient experience, designed to allow the resident to gain experience in a wide variety of psychiatric modalities. The major emphasis is on continuity of care, as the experiences are designed to span the entire twelve month period.

The resident assumes the primary psychiatric care for a wide variety of outpatients in a number of different settings. Residents spend time each week at one of several community-based health clinics, and at the Desert Vista Outpatient Clinic seeing psychotherapy patients. The resident sees a limited number of child cases under supervision from a child psychiatrist. Residents will also be provided opportunities to rotate through community based multidisciplinary treatment settings where they will provide treatment to patients who are seriously and persistently mentally ill.

The PGY III year is the time for expanding necessary skills to practice in a wide variety of settings. In addition to continued supervision experience with exploratory and supportive psychotherapy of individual adults, the resident is involved in ongoing family and group therapies, and gains experience in behavioral and cognitive therapy. To accomplish these goals, the resident receives an average of four hours of supervision each week.

The didactic curriculum in the third year emphasizes psychotherapies. Residents also will be provided coursework on contemporary treatment modalities. A two year continuous case conference is also initiated in the third year.

The Fourth Post-Graduate Year

The PGY IV year is conceptualized as a time to consolidate the resident's sense of professional identity as well as to provide experiences which emulate post-graduate practice activities. Residents will be expected to rotate through both child psychiatry and administrative psychiatry, with ample time being provided for elective experiences.

The child psychiatry rotation occurs in local school and community environments that offer an opportunity to learn the intricacies of providing consultations in these busy settings. The resident gains experience in providing psychotherapy and psychopharmacologic treatment to children and adolescents. Residents will have the opportunity to provide family therapy at a community based outpatient clinic.

The administrative rotation allows the PGY IV resident to gain experience in dealing with the organizational aspects of psychiatry. The resident operates as the psychiatric consultant to the Psychiatric Center's Outpatient Clinic. In this capacity, the PGY IV resident is available for clinical supervision of the junior residents, runs team meetings, and participates in the operation of the program.

Elective rotations can be developed by the PGY IV to meet their specific educational needs and professional interests. The Program supports the resident in selecting electives and maintains lists of electives which have been approved in the past.

The PGY IV residents also continue to manage outpatients as part of their longitudinal psychotherapy experience. Supervision continues to be provided for ongoing outpatients. Didactic experiences for PGY IV residents include seminars on neurology, advanced topics in biological psychiatry, administrative psychiatry, and Journal Club.

Conferences and Didactics

PGY I

• Introductory Psychiatric Toolbox
• Views of Mind
• Psychiatric Interviewing
• Introduction to Psychopharmacology
• Research Methodology
• Culture and Psychiatry
• Psychiatric Stew

PGY II

• Cognitive/ Behavioral Therapy
• Human Development & Interruptions of Normal Development
• Psychiatric Syndromes and Therapeutics/Personality Disorders
• Addictions
• Introduction to Psychodynamic Theory
• Group Therapy

PGY III

• Child/Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychopharmocology
• Sexual and Marital Therapy
• Family Therapy
• APA Guidelines
• Psychodynamic Case Conference
• Outpatient Psychopharmacology
• Administration

PGY IV

• Review of Psychiatryand Neurology
• Advanced Biological Psychiatry
• Career Planning
• Psychodynamic Theory and Case Conference

All Years:

• Journal Club
• Departmental Case Conferences
• Departmental Continuing Education (Weekly)
• Skill Building: The Board-style Examination
• Clinical Case Conference

Residents have all classes scheduled on one day/week to promote the concept of "protected" time. Residents have supervision scheduled in a manner which favors didactic attendance over other clinical responsibilities.

Call and Benefits Specific to Psychiatry Residency

Call Schedule

Residents are required to provide in-house coverage for the Desert Vista Behavioral Health Center. The frequency of duty decreases with seniority, with a PGY II resident having approximately one call per week. The length of duty is 12 hours of night/day coverage during weekdays, weekends and holidays.

Benefits

PGY I and PGY II residents receive three weeks of paid vacation. PGY III and PGY IV residents are given four weeks of paid vacation annually.

All residents receive up to 12 weekdays of sick leave at the discretion of the Program Director and the Chairman.

Each resident receives a yearly educational allowance.

Applicant Qualifications

To be considered for residency in this program, a candidate is a graduate from a U.S. or Canadian medical school, or expects to graduate soon from a U.S. or Canadian medical school, or is a graduate of an international medical school

While there is no absolute cut off for USMLE scores or number of attempts to pass, we will give preference to applicants with scores above 80 and no more than two attempts.

Approximately half of our current residents are IMG’s. However, applicants must be able to prove legal ability to work in the United States. We are not able to sponsor any type of visas. International Medical Graduates are expected to have 6-12 months recent US medical experience, which includes but is not limited to direct patient care, an externship or observership, education about patient care or clinical research in the U.S. A significant portion of this experience must be relevant to psychiatry, i.e., involvement with psychiatry research, trained or practiced psychiatry in home country or externship experience in the U.S.

To Apply for a Psychiatric Residency Training Program

All applications for our residency programs must be sent through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). All other forms of application will not be considered. Please do not submit your application or any other type of paperwork through our e-mail system or by fax. Applications for the March 2007 NRMP Match are accepted through ERAS from September 1, 2006 to December 15, 2006. Interviews will be conducted from November through mid-January.

To apply to our Psychiatric Programs, simply contact your medical school's Dean's office. If you are an international medical graduate, you should contact the ECFMG; they will act as your Dean's office. Also, we require copies of your USMLE transcripts be sent to us through ERAS directly from the National Board of Medical Examiners.

Selected applicants are invited to interview on one of several formal interview days. The agenda includes a briefing by the Program Director, a tour, personal interviews with faculty members, and lunch with residents. Applications are reviewed by the Program Director and Selection Committee.

Our Selection Committee makes the final decisions as to which applicants will be offered positions. On occasion we have done “pre-match” for applicants who are not graduates of American medical schools.

Physician Faculty

Carol Olson, MD
Chair, Department of Psychiatry
ABPN Certified
Psychiatric Residency: UCSD, Maricopa Medical Center

William James, MD
Director of Psychiatric Residency Training Program
ABPN Certified
Psychiatric Residency: McLean Hospital

Maria - Jesus Bailon, MD, PhD
ABPN Certified
Psychiatric Residency: Maricopa Medical Center

Esad Boskailo, MD
Adult Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Residency: Maricopa Medical Center

Michael Brennan, MD
ABPN Certified
Psychiatric Residency: Maricopa Medical Center

Lisa Coburn, MD
ABPN Certified with additional qualifications in Child Psychiatry
Child Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Residency: University of Michigan

Shelley Doumani, MD
ABPN Certified
Psychiatric Residency: University of Toronto, Canada

Samuel Hand, MD
ABPN Certified with additional qualifications in Geriatrics and Forensics
Psychiatric Residency: Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia

Kevin Hoffert , MD
Adult Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Residency: Loyola University

Michael Hughes, MD
ABPN Certified
Psychiatric Residency: University of North Carolina

Robert Klaehn, MD
ABPN Certified with additional qualifications in Child Psychiatry
Child Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Residency: University of Maryland

Andrew Parker, DO
Adult Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Residency: Maricopa Medical Center

Jacqueline Pynn, MD
Adult Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Residency: Maricopa Medical Center

Domiciano Santos, MD
ABPN Certified & added qualifications in Geriatrics
Psychiatric Residency: Maricopa Medical Center

Robert Shuch, DO
ABPN Certified
Child Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Residency: Maricopa Medical Center

Shayne Tomisato, MD
Director of Child Fellowship
ABPN Certified with additional qualifications in Child Psychiatry
Child Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Residency: Duke University

Lydia Torio, MD
Adult Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Residency: Maricopa Medical Center

Traci Wherry, MD
Adult Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Residency: University of Arizona

Last updated on July 3, 2008