SCAHEC ELECTIVE
Faculty: Jack Bonner, M.D. Institution: Greenville Hospital System Location: Greenville, South Carolina Duration: 4 weeks Course Offered: Periods 3, 5 Number of Students: 2 per year Prerequisite: 1.) Core Rotations, 2.) Prior contact by phone with Jack Bonner, M.D, Program Director for Psychiatric Teaching Services (864-455-7834). Students Report To: Natalie Carey, Medical Student Coordinator, Inpatient and outpatient opportunities exist for electives in Psychiatry and subspecialties in child/adolescent and geropsychiatry. An example is listed below. The content of this course is designed to provide the student an in-depth experience in comprehensive psychiatric patient evaluation and treatment. He/she will be assigned to a practicing psychiatrist with hospitalized patients. The presenting problems of patients within the hospital include personality disorders, acute psychotic disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, psychosomatic illness, organic brain syndrome and substance abuse disorders. The student will be responsible for preadmission screening; admission work ups, to include a physical and mental status examination. He/she will follow the patients' daily hospitalization and treatment program, and will monitor changes in clinical condition and response to therapy. He/she will also participate in the decision-making processes and in the preparation for discharge and aftercare. Additional assignments will be made to specialized treatment programs including group psychotherapy; partial (day care) treatment programs; and aftercare clinics, as well as scheduled treatment team meetings. In addition to his/her work in the hospital, the student will spend time each week in his preceptor's office and also may participate in consults requested on patients within the other Hospital System facilities. He/she will make daily rounds under the supervision of the psychiatrist during which time he/she will learn about psychiatric diagnosis and about the contemporary management of mental disorders. The student's call schedule will parallel that of his/her preceptor. Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to prepare individualized treatment plans for the various mental illnesses seen in general medical practice; recognize the indications for and significance of laboratory studies used in the evaluation of behavior disturbances associated with physical disease of the brain and body; and identify and discuss the uses of anxiolytic, neuroleptic, antidepressive, sedative, hypnotic and other medications used in the treatment of psychiatric illnesses. Through participation in treatment teams the student will learn the role and function of the various allied health professionals caring for the patient as well as how to direct the team in the overall patient management. The student will see patients being treated in Marshall I. Pickens Hospital, a 80-bed comprehensive psychiatric treatment center. This facility admits 100+ new patients per month with an average stay of 6-7 days. Alternatively, the student may rotate through Patrick B. Harris Psychiatric Hospital, a state owned facility near Anderson, SC. The course is designed to provide the student with maximum patient contact. Reviews of interviewing techniques and the principles of general psychiatry with the introduction of individual and group psychotherapy techniques will complement the student's clinical contact with patients. The student will be evaluated by both his preceptors and the Academic Program Director for Psychiatry or his designee. Input will be obtained from the other health professionals with whom the student has worked. Additionally, successful completion of the stated objectives will be required to pass this course. * ADDENDUM * Options exist to structure outpatient learning experiences in private practice or community mental health, and in child/adolescent and geriatric psychiatry. An elective in consultation/liason psychiatry and emergency psychiatry may be available to interested students. Distribution of Student Effort: Rounds/Discussions/Lectures/10 hrs/wk (library)/5 hrs/wk Patient Contact/25 hrs/wk |