Program Overview

During the PGY2 year, residents transition from inpatient care to a comprehensive outpatient experience. This year emphasizes continuity of care, psychotherapy training, and subspecialty exposure across diverse patient populations and clinical settings.

Residents participate in the following half-day outpatient clinics each week:

• General Psychiatry Longitudinal Clinic at WisPIC (full year)
• Psychotherapy Clinic at WisPIC (full year)
• Mental Health Clinic at the VA (full year)
• Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic at WisPIC (full year)
• Geriatric Psychiatry Clinic at WisPIC (full year)
• Front Door Clinic at the VA (6 months)
• Memory Clinic at UW Health Fitchburg (3 months)
• Addiction Psychiatry at the VA (9 months), including:
  • ADTP Group
  • ADTP Clinic
  • Suboxone Clinic
• Integrated Care Clinic at the VA (3 months)

Additional clinical experiences include:

• Consult Liaison Psychiatry – three 1-week blocks
• Neurology – two 1-week blocks

Sample Schedule

Quarter 1

Quarter 2 (1 week Consults)

Quarter 3 (1 week Consults, 1 week Neurology)

Quarter 4 (1 week Consults, 1 week Neurology)

Rural Public Health Track Option:
Residents participating in the Rural Public Health Track may have a Longitudinal Clinic at one of our rural sites in place of their outpatient experience at WisPIC and the VA.

Advanced Track Residents:
Residents who join the program from a non-psychiatry ACGME-accredited residency begin their training with the PGY1 curriculum. Although they enter as PGY2s within the program, with approval from ABPN, they complete the same foundational clinical experiences as PGY1 residents to ensure comprehensive preparation for psychiatric practice.

By the end of the third year, residents will have completed all timed ACGME requirements and required experiences. The PGY3 curriculum emphasizes continuity of care and advanced clinical responsibilities.

• Longitudinal Outpatient Clinics
  • Continued care of general and psychotherapy patients at WisPIC, with ongoing care of child and adolescent patients from PGY2 Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic
  • Continued care of patients at VA

• Consult Liaison Psychiatry
  • 1 week blocks throughout the year for a total of approximately 2.5 months

• Senior Inpatient Psychiatry
  • 3 weeks at University Hospital, with increased leadership and clinical responsibilities

• Neurology
  • 2 weeks of focused clinical experience

• Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
  • Approximately 15 half-days

• Forensic Psychiatry
  • 6 half-day sessions at Mendota Mental Health Institute

• Community Psychiatry
  • Rotations at:
    • Access Community Health Center
    • VA Community Psychiatry Services
    • Green County Department of Human Services (For residents on the Rural Public Health Track)

• Geriatric Psychiatry
  • 5 days in the Geriatric Clinic at the VA
• Quality Improvement (QI)
  • Dedicated time for QI work: Half day per week for 6 months

Rural Public Health Track Option:
Residents participating in the Rural Public Health Track may continue in their rural Longitudinal Clinic or may have the option of developing a patient panel at our WisPIC or VA locations.  Additional rural rotations are also available to Rural Public Health Track residents.

The PGY4 year is designed to support residents in consolidating their clinical skills, pursuing individualized interests, and preparing for independent psychiatric practice. This final year emphasizes leadership, autonomy, and continued patient care.

• Longitudinal Outpatient Clinics
  • Continued care of patients at WisPIC and the VA, maintaining continuity from prior years

• Senior Inpatient Psychiatry Rotation
  • Advanced clinical responsibilities and leadership experience at University Hospital

• Rural Public Health Track: Additional rural rotations are also available to Rural Public Health Track residents

• Elective Time

Potential Electives:

• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
• Addiction Psychiatry
• Administrative Psychiatry
• Behavioral Sleep Disorders
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Community Psychiatry
• Community Support Program
• Consult Liaison Adult
• Consult Liaison Child
• Couple’s Therapy
• Developmental Anxiety Disorder
• E-Consults
• Family Therapy
• Geriatric Psychiatry
• Independent Study
• Inpatient Adult (Pre-Attending) Psychiatry
• Inpatient Child Psychiatry
• Inpatient Group Therapy
• Integrated Care
• Interdisciplinary Treatment Team
• Interventional Psychiatry
• Mindfulness Based Therapy
• Neuropsychology
• Pediatric Functional Neuro Disorders
• Psychopharmacology
• Quality Improvement
• Research
• Sleep Disorders
• Treatment Resistant Depression
• Women’s Health

Our Psychiatry Residency call structure is designed to ensure comprehensive patient coverage while supporting resident education, wellness, and gradual transition into clinical independence. The system includes in-house and backup coverage across all training levels.

Accompanied Call:

At the beginning of the academic year, PGY1 & PGY2 residents participate in an accompanied call period, during which senior residents and faculty provide direct support and supervision to ease the transition into Primary (PGY2 & Advanced Track PGY3) and Secondary (PGY1 & Advanced Track PGY2) roles.

Call Responsibilities by Training Level:

PGY1 (and Advanced Track PGY2)

• Night Float Weeks (Monday-Friday, 5:00pm-5:00am). ~5 weeks per resident in 1-2 week blocks.
• Weekend Days (Saturday-Sunday, 8:00am-6:00pm)
• Holiday Day (8:00am-6:00pm)

PGY2 (and Advanced Track PGY3):  Beginning July 2026

• Night Float Weeks (Sunday-Thursday, 5:00pm-8:00am). ~5 weeks per resident.
• Friday Night (5:00pm-8:00am)
• Saturday Night (6:00pm-8:00am)
• Weekend Days (Saturday-Sunday, 8:00am-6:00pm)
• Holiday Night – 2 residents (6:00pm-8:00am)
• Holiday Day (8:00am-6:00pm)

PGY3/4

• Outpatient Emergency Phone Coverage (Monday-Friday, 5:00pm-10:00pm & Saturday-Sunday, 8:00am-6:00pm)
  • Note: Resident would be backup, if needed, until 8:00am
• In House Nights (Saturday-Sunday, 6:00pm-8:00am)
• Holiday Day (8:00am-6:00pm)
  • Note: Resident would be backup, if needed, until 8:00am

Resident seminars occur weekly on Wednesday afternoons for all resident classes, and the majority of these sessions take place at WisPIC.

In the first year didactics, there is a heavy emphasis on basics of psychiatry centered on inpatient and emergency psychiatry given that this is the day to day practice environment that PGY1 residents experience. Additionally, we begin our Introduction to Psychotherapy seminars in the second half of PGY1 year to prepare residents to begin their psychotherapy practice at the outset of the second year.

In the second year didactics, residents build upon this foundation with core didactics in psychopharmacology, psychopathology, child and adolescent psychiatry, addiction psychiatry and psychotherapy centered on outpatient treatment. Additionally, emergency and consult-liaison psychiatry is also covered in order to support the start of consult-liaison rotations and the bulk of in-house night float responsibilities occurring during the second year of residency.  In addition to Wednesday afternoon didactics, PGY2 residents have an additional half day of didactics on Thursday mornings in order to set a firm foundation in the basics of psychiatry tied to its most common treatment contexts.

In the third and fourth year didactics, there is expansion into more specialized areas of psychiatry like community psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, gender and sexuality, culture and religion, and psychodynamic psychotherapy, as well as seminars focusing on professional development and supporting residents in considering practice environments where they might like to take their careers following graduation.

In addition to class-specific didactics, there are a number of didactics involving either the full residency (e.g. Journal Club), or combined classes (e.g. PGY2-4 for Clinical Workshops allowing for deeper dives into important clinical topics; PGY3-4 for Brief Therapy, Group Therapies, and Clinical Psychedelics.) These offerings allow for cross-class discussion and collaboration, which is a something our program attempts to consistently support in both didactic and clinical settings.

Finally, our cultural psychiatry seminars run longitudinally through the course of the residency, and provide opportunities for education and reflection of matters of identity, belonging, and culture as they impact ourselves and our patients.

Alongside these content areas moving through the didactics, there are consistent opportunities built into the didactics for engagement with program leadership and chief residents in Program Director Meetings and Class Meetings, wellbeing-related didactics like “Professional Wellbeing Groups” supporting each cohort of residents, as well as full residency sessions promoting resident culture and cohesion like “Eudaemonia” that provide opportunities for didactics on physician burnout, substance use, and resilience in cross-class mentorship groups. Together, these opportunities are meant to support the wellbeing of our resident through ongoing efforts of process improvement within the residency as well as providing spaces to build professional identity and community.

In addition to these didactic offerings for residents specifically, residents participate in department-level educational events like monthly “Morbidity and Mortality” conferences, Grand Rounds, senior case conferences, and QI-project presentations occurring regularly on Fridays at noon. Residents are also able to attend larger scale educational events hosted by the department of psychiatry like the UW Annual Update and Advances in Psychiatry conference and Wisconsin Symposium on Emotion.

Motivated residents are encouraged to explore research opportunities during their residency. Research experiences are tailored to each resident’s interest, prior experience, and projects they join. The Department of Psychiatry has world-class scientists that are involved in cutting edge research investigating the causes of major mental illness, their pathophysiology and new treatment strategies. The Department is especially distinguished in the areas of the basic science of human emotion, the effects of stress, sleep disorders, sleep and consciousness research, psychedelics research, and functional brain imaging.

Our research faculty have a range of expertise, and are open to exploring opportunities with our residents. The Department of Psychiatry has multiple affiliated research institutes, including the Health Emotions Research Institute, based in the Department, a University-wide institution dedicated to exploring the links between emotions and health. Directed by Department Chair Dr. Ned Kalin and Dr. Richard Davidson, the overall aim of HealthEmotions is to develop a better understanding of the brain mechanism involved in the positive and negative emotions. Additional research efforts explore the psychosocial factors that predispose to mental illness and the brain mechanisms underlying successful psychotherapy.

The Department is also home to world-class sleep and consciousness researchers in the Wisconsin Institute for Sleep and Consciousness and the Center for Sleep and Consciousness.

A growing area of expertise at UW involving faculty from the Department of Psychiatry and other departments, is research on the pharmacology and potential clinical applications of psychedelic compounds at the Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances.

The Department’s onsite research resources include molecular biology facilities, sleep laboratory, transcranial magnetic stimulation and the Lane Neuroimaging Lab. PET, microPET and EEG equipment is available at the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior. The University offers numerous other resources and opportunities for research and collaboration.