PsychIG – Psychiatry Interest Group

Officers

Co-Presidents Daisy Valle & Maisha Akbar
Treasurer Sheldon Joseph
Faculty Advisor Dr. Mariam Rahmani

Welcome to the Psychiatry Interest Group!

The Psychiatry Interest Group (PsychIG) at UF is a student organization which recognizes psychiatry as a diverse, challenging, and exciting medical specialty. The missions of PsychIG at UF are:

To promote student interest in psychiatry

To provide opportunities for student exposure to psychiatry

To foster a sense of community between students interested in psychiatry

To identify opportunities for and promote student involvement in psychiatry research

To enact outreach programs that increase awareness of mental illnesses as well as educate the UF and Gainesville communities about the mental health resources

Why is Psychiatry Important?

Psychiatry is a broad specialty that encompasses prevention, diagnosis, and medical therapies in a diverse patient population ranging from early childhood through adulthood. Psychiatry is a rapidly growing field with many opportunities for specialization.

Psychiatry Residency & Fellowship

The Minority Affairs Section of the American Medical Association maintains a helpful guide to the most common residency programs, including psychiatry. Mariana Mendez-Tadel, MD, Resident, Department of Psychiatry, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, author of the section on psychiatric residencies, writes, “most [psychiatric] residencies nowadays are four years in length. Internship is now integrated into the categorical psychiatry program and includes a minimum of 4 months of medicine or emergency medicine, 2 months of neurology and various other combinations of rotations. The majority include at least a few months of inpatient psychiatry. However most prog! rams will still allow candidates who have already done an internship in another specialty or a transitional or preliminary year to join the residency program as second years. Second year is usually entirely devoted to inpatient rotations. The third and fourth years are mostly spent in the outpatient setting. Some programs will allow residents to graduate in the third year as long as they continue a fellowship immediately afterwards. Also there are a few combined programs in Psychiatry and Medicine, Pediatrics, Neurology or Family Medicine.”

Following residency and subsequent certification in general psychiatry, psychiatrists are eligible for certification via the ABPN for the following subspecialties:

  • Addiction Psychiatry
  • Brain Injury Medicine
  • Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
  • Clinical Neurophysiology
  • Forensic Psychiatry
  • Geriatric Psychiatry
  • Hospice and Palliative Medicine
  • Pain Medicine
  • Psychosomatic Medicine
  • Sleep Medicine

Grand Grounds

Please visit: http://www.psychiatry.ufl.edu/Education/Grand-Rounds/ for information on the UF Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds program.