The Shadyside Family Medicine Residency is committed to providing a strong behavioral science curriculum. The core faculty includes a licensed clinical social worker and a psychiatrist. The curriculum is focused on teaching at the point of care. There are several initiatives designed for this purpose including teaching in both the inpatient and outpatient settings how integrated models of care, and especially how the collaborative care model is implemented in an urban primary care setting. We provide a Medication Assisted Treatment clinic and residents learn the models of recovery, harm reduction, and medication management skills. Evidence-based protocols for the diagnoses and treatment of depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders promote the residents’ competence in managing these commonly presenting disorders. In addition to our faculty members, a full-time licensed behavioral health provider treats common psychiatric conditions in the primary care setting in collaboration with our physicians and provides on-going education about the collaborative care model. These initiatives are supported by the EHR.
Members of the behavioral science faculty see patients with residents for teaching purposes when needed. A rotation in inpatient/outpatient psychiatry in the second year is a required curricular component. This rotation offers experiences in inpatient psychiatry consultation-liaison services and outpatient psychiatry in medical outpatient settings. Residents see patients with psychiatric problems in both medical inpatient and outpatient settings, where family physicians ordinarily encounter these issues. They gain more experience in recognition, diagnosis, treatment planning, and psychopharmacologic management.
Residents fine-tune medical interviewing skills by reviewing videotaped office visits with the faculty immediately following designated clinical sessions. An annual workshop in advanced patient interviewing using professional actors as patients allows for small group experiential learning.
The Behavioral Science faculty member joins the inpatient team for behavioral rounds on a monthly scheduled basis. A bi-weekly Balint group, led by two faculty trained by the American Balint Society, enhances residents’ understanding of the complexities of the doctor-patient relationship. On alternate weeks, Resident Support Groups promote physician wellness, debriefing skills and coping skills.
Psychiatry/Behavioral Medicine conferences are held monthly, with various formats including skill development workshops, case conferences, psychopharmacology consultations, patient interviews, and a variety of other presentations. These sessions are interactive and multi-modal. In addition to the substantive formal instruction, behavioral health issues are addressed regularly by the Family Medicine faculty throughout the three years as part of inpatient and outpatient clinical teaching.