Senior Elective Rotations

This elective is offered for 4th year medical students both at Tulane and from other schools interested in combined training who want a closer look at the environments and practice styles of dual-boarded physicians.  We design the experience around the learning needs of the student and always include participation in our two Med/Psych continuity clinics.  Students may also participate in a hospital-based pain management clinic, neuropsychiatry clinic, functional bowel clinic, and observe forensic evaluations of medically complicated psychiatric cases.  Our inpatient experiences can include consult liaison Psychiatry at Tulane hospital, or general Psychiatry with Med/Psych attendings at the new University Medical Center.  Rotating students will be expected to attend didactics in both the Internal Medicine and Psychiatry departments as well as our weekly Med/Psych meeting.  By the end of the rotation, the student will lead the weekly conference on a topic chosen in collaboration with the course director. 

Objectives: 

At the completion of this elective the student will:

1.  Be familiar with common psychiatric diagnoses encountered in the medically ill in emergency medicine and in medicine-surgical patients.
2. Be able to diagnose and treat delirium, mania and psychosis secondary to general medical illness.
3. Learn to recognize and assess psychiatric presentations of neurological, infectious, rheumatologic and endocrine disease.
4. Learn to manage alcohol and drug withdrawal and detoxification in the medically ill.
5. Learn to assess capacity to make medical decisions in medical inpatients.
6. Learn medical monitoring and screening appropriate for patients on chronic psychotropic medication.
7. Be able to formulate appropriate consult questions and write a consultation report.
8. Become familiar with an approach to assessing and managing medical and psychiatric co-morbid illness.
9. Be able to examine, evaluate and present a clinic patient with medical and psychiatric illness.
10. Gain knowledge about the variety of settings in which internal medicine-psychiatry physicians practice.

Structure:

• 2.5 days weekly in Emergency Medicine and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
• 1 afternoon in Resident Med-Psych Clinic  (Wednesday, 12-5 at the Tulane Ruth Fertel Community Clinic)
•  0.5 days of didactics (Friday afternoon)
• Attend Med-Psych Conference weekly (Thursday 12-1 pm, Tidewater 10th Floor Library)
• Present a topic at the Med-Psych Conference prior to completion of the rotation
•  Grand Rounds weekly, from 12-1 pm on Fridays
• Other clinical experiences will be offered to each student during this rotation in order to maximize their exposure to a variety of settings. Some other clinical experiences available but not required include the following: observe forensic court cases, observe rounds on Medicine wards team, observe rounds on Psychiatry wards team, attend Medicine grand rounds and attend Medicine afternoon case presentations.

Supervisor:

J. B. McConville, M.D.
Tulane Dept of Psychiatry, T#8448, 10th Floor, TideWater Bldg
jmcconvi@tulane.edu 
Phone: 504-988-2201

Pre-requisite:  Successful completion of core Psychiatry clerkship
Duration: 4 weeks
Max:   One student/month

Tulane students must meet with the course director to obtain approval for the rotation, and away students must submit credentials to the Psychiatry Clerkship director as well as register with VSAS before the rotation can be scheduled.  Credentials include a letter of good standing from your Dean's office (outlining vaccination, TB test and malpractice coverage), CV and updated transcript.