UBC Training Objectives – Adult General Psychiatry (the link opens a PDF file)

Inpatient and Outpatient Rotations

PGY2 is the foundational clinical training year for Psychiatry residents. Residents spend the full second year in a broad-based clinical experience in General Adult Psychiatry with 6 months spent in a general hospital inpatient setting and 6 months in an outpatient setting. Our two main teaching hospitals in Surrey and New Westminster are among the largest in the province, and serve large and rapidly growing catchment populatons in Greater Vancouver. They offer an impressive range of educational opportunities. Surrey Memorial Hospital is one of the busiest departments of psychiatry in Canada, with over 5700 patients seen last year in our Psychiatric Emergency Department. At the Royal Columbian Hospital, over 3000 psychiatric patients were seen in our Psychiatric Emergency Department.

Our teachers at SMH and RCH pride ourselves on offering a highly-rated and individually-tailored educational program which allows residents to gain confidence and skills in managing complex psychiatric illness, and leading multidisciplinary care teams.

The rich clinical exposure, diverse patient populations, and extensive didactic and case-based teaching offered at our main teaching hospitals will allow residents to gain experience and develop expertise in understanding the etiology, symptoms, diagnosis, course of illness and treatment of the major psychiatric disorders seen in the general adult population. Clinical learning is augmented by a comprehensive series of seminars, rounds, and courses covering everything from interview skill development to evidence-based psychopharmacology.

The PGY2 training sites are: Surrey Memorial Hospital and the Royal Columbian Hospital

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

• Site: Royal Columbian Hospital
• Training in CBT for anxiety and mood disorders is integrated into the 6-month outpatient component of the adult general psychiatry core rotation in PGY2.
• Residents have the opportunity to learn CBT protocols for the treatment of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobia, and other related conditions.
• Each week, the resident co-facilitates a 2-hour CBT group, as well as seeing 2 patients individually. Residents have the opportunity to observe their peers doing therapy.
• Supervision is provided by Dr. Nicole Dorfan, R.Psych. Teaching methods include direct observation of sessions with immediate feedback, live and videotaped demonstration of therapy techniques, and didactic lectures that take place during the psychotherapy rounds.
• Residents are provided with a library of resources that include evidence-based therapy manuals, instructional DVDs, and patient handouts.
• Residents participate in the planning and presentation of monthly journal club focusing on critical appraisal, and psychotherapy rounds focusing on evidence-based literature.